Use of fluorinated polybrominated diphenyl ethers and simplified cleanup for the analysis of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in house dust

A simple, cost-effective method is described for the analysis of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in house dust using pressurized fluid extraction, cleanup with modified silica solid phase extraction tubes, and fluorinated internal standards. There are 14 PBDE congeners included in the method, some typically contained in the commercial mixtures used as flame retardants, and some which are not routinely reported in the peer-reviewed literature. A gas chromatographic–mass spectrometry instrumental method provides baseline separation in <20 min, detection limits <20 ng/g, and quantitation limits <60 ng/g for most congeners. Method blanks contained an average concentration < 9 ng/g for all congeners except BDE209 which had an average around 40 ng/g. Spiked samples showed good accuracy with relative percent difference (RPD) <7%, and good precision with relative standard deviation <22% for all congeners except BDE209. The method was applied to the analysis of a standard dust (NIST Standard Reference Material 2585) and showed good accuracy with RPD <25% except for BDE154. Overall, this method exhibited good performance characteristics in all categories including simplicity, cost, sensitivity, selectivity, accuracy, and precision.