Quantification of the organophosphate flame retardant triphenylphosphate and its main metabolite in whole blood by liquid–liquid micro-extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

This work proposes a rapid, simple and accurate analytical method for quantification of the organophosphate flame retardant triphenylphosphate (TPhP) biomarker diphenylphosphate (DPhP) in whole blood by effective sample preparation followed liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) quantification. A liquid–liquid microextraction (µLLE) from 250 µL mouse was developed validated to quantify TPhP DPhP. Nature extraction solvent, grinding cell lysis purification step were investigated. The use distilled solvents proved necessary reduce control contamination ubiquitous target compounds throughout process maintain stable repeatable signal controls. validation performed matrix-matched calibration with correction labelled internal standards: limit 1 ng/mL DPhP 2 good linearity over range up 48 each compound. Accuracy between 92.5% 106.7% relative standard deviation < 20%. µLLE-LC-MS/MS successfully tested during short exposures mice or via drinking water intravenous injection.