Determination of Ibuprofen Drug in Aqueous Environmental Samples by Gas Chromatography–mass Spectrometry without Derivatization

Ibuprofen (IBP) is one of the most used active pharmaceutical ingredients globally. Due to its extensive use and resistance to biodegradation it is considered as environmental pollutant and included in the list of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs). The objective of this work was to develop the method for the identification and quantification of IBP from water samples without derivatization using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry based on the sublimation property of this class of drugs. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) was used for clean-up and enrichment of samples. Under optimum conditions, 1.0 μL of sample in dichloromethane was injected onto GC-MS equipped with HP-5 MS column. The instrumental linear calibration range for IBP was found between 0.8 to 70 μg mL-1. However, the LOD of 0.8 ng mL-1 and LOQ of 2.6 ng mL-1 were achieved after pre-concentration. The method was applied to determine IBP in synthetic, hospital and municipal wastewaters and river water. It may be concluded that GC-MS is useful tool for quick identification and determination of IBP in aqueous environmental samples.