HPLC-DAD and PARAFAC for the determination of bisphenol-A and another four bisphenols migrating from BPA-free polycarbonate glasses

Abstract

Bisphenol A (BPA) is considered an endocrine disrupting chemical as it affects the human hormonal system and is widely used in polycarbonate (PC) manufacture. As the population is continually exposed to BPA, European regulations have limited its industrial use in cosmetics, thermal paper, toys and food contact materials. Because of these restrictions, other bisphenols are replacing BPA, but they show similar harmful effects as BPA.

In this work, migration of five bisphenols (BPS, BPF, BPA, BPAF, BPZ) from BPA-free PC glasses into simulant B (3% acetic acid (w/v) in aqueous solution) has been determined by means of HPLC-DAD. For this task, twenty glasses were exposed to a migration test at 70 °C for 24 h, more severe conditions than the ones suggested in technical guides. Afterwards, PARAFAC (parallel factor analysis) decomposition, validation of PARAFAC models, and evaluation of CCα (decision limit) and CCβ (detection capability) were carried out.

A study was performed by comparing the population results (concentration), obtained for analytical blanks (n = 40) versus the ones obtained for the migration test from BPA-free polycarbonate glasses (n = 40) by means of the corresponding probability density functions fitted for both populations.

A statistically significant difference between both populations was only found for BPA. BPA migrated from PC glasses with concentration greater than 0.49 μg L-1, for probabilities of false positive (α) and false negative (β) equal to 0.05 and 0.07, respectively. However, the maximum amount of BPA migrated from PC glasses was 5.60 μg L-1, a value lower than the established limit for the specific migration of a non-authorised substance (10 μg kg−1).