Sensitive estrogens determination in wastewater samples by HPLC and fluorescence detection

Abstract

A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection method (HPLC-FLD) was developed and validated for 17β-estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) determination in wastewater samples. Sample preparation was performed by solid-phase extraction (SPE) on Hypersep C18 cartridges. Conditioning and elution solvents and sample volume were investigated by a 23 factorial design for both analytes. The pre-concentration factor was 2500 times, allowing to quantify 5.0 ng L-1 for both hormones. The SPE-HPLC-FLD method was successfully applied to detect and quantify trace amount of target compounds in raw and treated wastewater samples. E2 was found below limit of quantification in influent and effluent samples. Nevertheless, the recoveries of E2 in standard addition experiments were between 41 and 72%, with relative standard deviations between 4 and 16%. An important matrix effect was observed in the determination of EE2, with fluorescence signal suppression.