Abstract: A method was developed by solid phase extraction-gas chromatography for the simultaneous determination of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) in plastic food packing materials. The dissolution of phthalate esters from plastic packing materials into water, 65% alcohol, 4% acetic acid and n-hexane was studied. The enrichment of phthalate esters in extraction solution was conducted by solid phase extraction. The effect of gas chromatographic conditions on the separation of four phthalate esters was investigated. The results showed that the method had an excellent linear relationship with the correlation coefficient of 0.9986－0.9994. The recovery rates and detection limits of this method for DBP, BBP, DCHP and DEHP were 80.63%－95.50%, and 0.050, 0.010, 0.055 and 0.012 μg/mL, respectively. This developed method is easy, sensitive and reliable, which can be used to analyze phthalate esters in plastic food packing materials.

Key words: phthalate esters, simulants, solid-phase extraction, gas chromatography