Determination of brominated flame retardants in electrical and electronic equipments with microwave-assisted extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Determination of brominated flame retardants in electrical and electronic equipments (EEE) was achieved through microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) including mono-brominated through deca-brominated congeners were qualified and quantified with good linearity (0.9963–0.9998) and repeatability (RSD, 1.1–8.1%). Multivariable orthogonal experimental design was used to optimize the MAE parameters. Extraction temperature and time were the most significant factors for extraction process. The extractants were cleaned up with SPE method after extraction. Recoveries of spiked blank samples ranged from 72.4% to 108.4% for most of the analytes. The method was applied to the determination of PBBs and PBDEs in several kinds of real EEE samples. It was found that no detectable level of PBBs was detected among them. Different contents of PBDEs were tested in the tested samples and the total contents ranged from 25.0 ng g−1 to 194.0 ng g−1. The proposed approach demonstrated an environmentally friendly and convenient alternative, which only consumed 10 mL hexane to microwave extraction for 10 min at 100 °C.