Determination of Dodecanol and Short-Chained Ethoxylated Dodecanols by LC–MS/MS (with Electrospray Ionization) After Their Derivatization (with Phenyl Isocyanate)

This report describes the application of LC–MS/MS for the separation of dodecanol (C12OH) and homogenous fatty alcohols ethoxylated (AE) containing a dodecyl moiety and 1–9 ethoxy groups. These ethoxylates and free alcohol were derivatized for LC–MS/MS analysis with phenyl isocyanate (PIC). The derivatives of analytes with PIC were separated using a C18 column. Gradient elution with a mixture of ethyl acetate and acetonitrile (5 mM) was employed. The described determination method is characterized by low detection limits (range from 0.005 µg L−1 for: C12OH, C12EO2–7 to 1 µg L−1 for C12EO1) and quantification limits (range from 0.01 µg L−1 for: C12EO5–7 to 2 µg L−1 for C12EO1). The developed and validated method was used in combination with liquid–liquid extraction (using ethyl acetate) in order to identify and quantitatively determine the C12OH and C12EO1–9 present in environmental samples collected from Warta river water in Poznan. Graphical abstract Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11743-017-2015-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.