Abstract:

A fast analytical method for the determination of aniline in water and fish meat by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been developed. The water sample was mixed with acetonitrile by 4:1 (v/v) and the fish sample was extracted by 2.00 mL acetonitrile for each gram of sample, and then the extracts of water and fish samples were centrifuged at 5000 r/min for 5 min. The separation was performed on a reversed-phase C_l8 column using mobile phases of acetonitrile-0.5%(v/v) formic acid aqueous solution (85:15, v/v). Aniline was separated within 3 min. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.5-500 μg/L with R²>0.999. The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.50 μg/L and 1.00 μg/kg and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were 1.00 μg/L and 2.00 μg/kg for aniline in water and fish meat, respectively. The average recoveries of aniline in water were 93.7% at the spiked level of 40 ng and 86.7% at the spiked level of 400 ng (n=5). The average recoveries of aniline in fish were 96.8%, 92.6% and 81.8% at the spiked levels of 5, 50 and 500 ng respectively (n=5). The relative standard deviations were 1.5%-9.2%. Thirteen water samples and twelve fish samples were collected from a reservoir polluted by aniline and the maximum contents found were 1943.6 μg/L in water and 60.8 μg/kg in fish. The method is suitable for the determination of aniline residues in water and fish with the characteristics of easy operation, high accuracy and precision.

Key words: aniline, fish, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), water