Abstract: High performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS-MS) with accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) was used to establish a method for quantitative detection of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in paper food containers. Samples were extracted by ASE method with methanol. The resulting extract was cleaned up using a C18 solid phase extraction (SPE) column, and separate on a chromatographic C18 column using methanol and deionized water as mobile phases by gradient elution. Instrumental analysis was performed by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) in the multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The developed calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.5–50 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.9993. The recovery rates for PFOA were in the range of 90.2%–103.3% with relative standard deviations of 2.74%–6.03%. The detection limit (RSN = 3) was 0.1 µg/kg. This method was easy, time-saving, sensitive and suitable for the determination the PFOA in paper foods containers.

Key words: high performance liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), food paper containers, accelerated solvent extraction (ASE)