Seasonal alteration in distribution and concentration of Phthalate esters in Chabahar Bay

Environmental pollution imposes serious hazards and problems to the living organisms. This study aimed to determine the concentration and seasonal alteration of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) in the surface water of Chabahar Bay. Four replicated water samples were taken from the surface layers of seven stations in Chabahar Bay and prepared by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) method, before being injected into the Gas Chromatography with flame ionization detector. In this method, 0.5 ml of methanol (as diffusion solvent) and 20 µl of carbon tetrachloride (as extraction solvent) were injected quickly into the sea water samples, and after extraction, the deposited phase was taken by a Hamilton syringe and injected into the GC equipment for measurement. Under the optimum extraction and experimental conditions, the method yields a linear calibration curve in the concentration range from 10 to 600 µg/L for target analytes. The enrichment factors for DEHP and DnBP were 775 and 790, the correlation factor 0.997 and 0.997, the limits of detection were 0.04 and 1.78 µg/L and the relative standard deviations of DEHP and DnBP were 0.0036 and 0.058, respectively.The results revealed that the concentration of DEHP and DnBP differ considerably at different stations. Significant differences were also observed between the concentration of DEHP and DnBP at various stations (P ≤ 0.05).