Determination of urinary triclosan by stir bar sorptive extraction and thermal desorption–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

We have developed an analytical method for the determination of urinary 5-chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol (triclosan), which utilizes stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) and thermal desorption (TD)–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Human urine sample is de-conjugated by treatment with β-glucuronidase and sulfatase. A stir bar coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is added to the urine sample in a vial and the sample is stirred for 60 min at room temperature (25 °C). Then, the PDMS stir bar is subjected to TD–GC–MS. The detection limit of triclosan is 0.05 ng mL−1. The method shows linearity over the calibration range (0.1–10 ng mL−1) and the correlation coefficient (r) is higher than 0.993 for triclosan standard solution. The average recoveries of triclosan in human urine sample are 102.8–113.1% (RSD: 2.4–6.7%). This simple, sensitive, and selective analytical method may be used in the determination of trace amounts of triclosan in human urine samples.