Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for simultaneous determination of six parabens in aqueous cosmetics

A simple and rapid sample preparation method of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction(DLLME) was applied in the simultaneous determination of six parabens in the aqueous cosmetics. The analysis was performed on gas chromatography coupled with a flame ionization detection(GC-FID). The mixed solution containing 30 μL of chloroform(extraction solvent) and 300 μL of tetrahydrofuran(dispersive solvent) was rapidly injected into the sample solution for the purpose of microextraction. After that, the solution mentioned above was centrifuged at 4000 r/min for 10 min, and then the organic sediment phase was detected by GC-FID. The effects of experimental parameters, such as the extraction solvent and the volume of it, and the dispersive solvent and the volume of it, on the yield of the extraction were studied in detail. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factors of the target analytes range from 87 to 214. Linearity ranges are 0.05–10.0 μg/mL for methylparaben and 0.025–5.0 μg/mL for the other five parabens. The relative standard deviations(RSDs) are lower than 8.2%(n=6). The proposed method was applied to the analysis of six parabens in eleven aqueous cosmetics. The recoveries of the target analytes in the spiked real samples are in the range of 81.0%–103%.