Notice of RetractionStudy on the Contaminants of Phthalate Acid Esters (PAEs) in Shaanxi Section of the Wei River Basin, China

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

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This study aimed to investigate the occurance and distribution of phthalate acid esters (PAEs) in surface water of Wei Rivers in Shaanxi section. The tested PAEs were diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP) and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). The survey was preceded by millipore filtration and the solid phase extraction for the GC-MS determination of all examined PAEs. Respectively, in terms of seasonal changes, concentration of the PAEs in the mainstream is: dry season >; level period >; wet season. In dry season, contents of 4 PAEs were detected ranged from 1.31 μg/L to 38.02 μg/L, with an average value of 6.26 μg/L, and the detection rate is 100%. In level period, contents of 4 PAEs were detected ranged from 0.59 μg/L to 19.88 μg/L, with an average value of 4.07 μg/L, and the detection rate is 91.5%. In dry season, contents of 4 PAEs were detected ranged from 0.40 μg/L to 10.16 μg/L, with an average value of 2.01 μg/L, and the detection rate is 71%. And the heavily-polluted tributaries in dry season is Shitou River (38.02 μg/L), in level period is Jinling River (19.88 μg/L) and in wet season is Qishui River (10.16 μg/L) and Hei River (9.44 μg/L). The data indicate that PAEs concentrations generally below the quality standard.