Currently, industrialized nations have faced a new problem, the contamination of water by emerging contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). A method based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization source tandem mass spectrometry was developed and validated for the determination of nimesulide, amitriptyline, enalapril, glibenclamide, haloperidol and methylparaben in water samples. In the study of SPE, a 2v5-1 fractional factorial design was used as a tool for the selection of the most significant variables in the extraction efficiency of the analytes under study. The limits of detection and quantification ranged from 0.01 to 0.2 µg L-1 and 0.05 to 1.0 µg L-1, respectively. Good linearity was obtained by a correlation coefficient (r) > 0.99 for all compounds. Recoveries ranged from 65 and 120% with relative standard deviation (RSD) lower than 20%. The method was applied to the determination of PPCPs in samples of surface and drinking water for three months. PPCPs were detected at µg L-1 levels.
SPE; pharmaceuticals; personal care products; LC-ESI-MS/MS; matrix effect
