Abstract
Concerns about human health regarding the large use of bisphenol A in thermal papers have led to its replacement by bisphenol S. Analyses of bisphenols require several sample pretreatment steps, which are laborious, expensive, and time-consuming. A paper spray ionization mass spectrometry (PSI-MS) was developed to detect and quantify bisphenol S in three different brands of thermal papers commercially available. Parameters such as paper size, and paper position relative to the mass spectrometer inlet were evaluated. The analyses were performed in selected ion monitoring mode on a linear ion trap mass spectrometer. The developed method presented absolute recovery values ranging from 92.2 to 109.04%, accuracy values from −1.2 to 9.0%, and inter assay precision from 1.8 to 5.6% and enabled LOD as low as 5 ng g−1. The concentration of bisphenol S in all of the three brands of BPA-free thermal papers evaluated ranged from 1.36 to 6.77 μg g−1, and the concentrarion of BPA ranged from 6.56 to 16.4 μg g−1 in all samples of thermal paper evaluated. The PSI-MS method described here was comparable to the conventional ones, such as liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry described in the literature. The present study proved to be practical, fast, and efficient for the direct determination of bisphenol S in thermal papers. Furthermore, the methodology here described showed to be a promising alternative to replace the classical methods for determination of bisphenol S, due to its simplicity, and no needing of any sample pretreatment.
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Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), and Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG).
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This work was supported by grants from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG) (grant number 2018/10267001519), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (grant number 447927/2014-0), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for providing financial support through scholarships.
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RAB and JCPS contributed equally to this work. They optimized all parameters for PSI-MS essays, analyze, and interpreted the data for blank samples and commercial available thermal papers, and contributed to the writing process. MG, FBJ, and BGV contributed to the discussion of results. FBJ also contributed obtaining inputs to the work. ARC contributed to the conceptualization, project administration, resources, supervision, and writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Bernardo, R.A., Sousa, J.C.P., Gallimberti, M. et al. A fast and direct determination of bisphenol S in thermal paper samples using paper spray ionization mass spectrometry. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 57288–57296 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14603-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14603-0