Determination of estrogens in water by HPLC–UV using cloud point extraction

A method based on cloud point extraction was developed to determine four kinds of estrogens: estriol (E3), estradiol (E2), estrone (E1), and progesterone (P) in water by high performance liquid chromatography separation and ultraviolet detection (HPLC–UV). The non-ionic surfactant Triton X-114 was chosen as extractant solvent. The parameters affecting extraction efficiency, such as concentrations of Triton X-114 and Na2SO4, equilibration temperature, equilibration time and centrifugation time were evaluated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, preconcentration factors of 99 for E3, 73 for E2, 152 for E1 and 86 for P were obtained for 10 mL water sample. The detection of limitation was 0.23 ng mL−1 for E3, 0.32 ng mL−1 for E2, 0.25 ng mL−1 for E1 and 5.0 ng mL−1 for P. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of trace amount of estrogens in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent water and exposure water with 10 ng mL−1 E2 for toxicological study in our lab. For the case of WWTP effluent water samples, no estrogen was found. The accuracy of the proposed method was tested by recovery measurements of spiked samples and good recoveries of 81.2–99.5% were obtained.