Abstract
This study developed an online solid-phase extraction ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (Online-SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS) method for the analysis of 28 illegal drugs in sewage. To achieve this, 28 isotope internal standards (ISTDs) were added to 3 mL sewage samples, the pH was adjusted to 7-8 using hydrochloric acid or 20% ammonia water, followed by centrifugation, filtration, and analysis using UHPLC-MS/MS. The results indicated an excellent linearity of 1-300 ng L(-1), and cotinine in the concentration range of 20-6000 ng L(-1), linear correlation coefficient R(2) > 0.995, with the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.01-6 ng L(-1), and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.1-20 ng L(-1). The addition of three concentrates of low (2 ng L(-1)/40 ng L(-1)), medium (20 ng L(-1)/400 ng L(-1)), and high concentration (200 ng L(-1)/4000 ng L(-1)) demonstrated the matrix effect of the target compound between ± 22.0%. The extraction recovery was 70.0-119.4%, and a percent accuracy of 75.7-118.1%. Similarly, the intra- and inter-day precisions were 1.8-20.0% and 1.5-18.9%, respectively. The results cemented the sensitivity, accuracy, reliability, strong specificity, and reproducibility, which can be used to screen 28 illegal drugs in sewage for trace analysis.