ORIGINAL PAPER Quantitative Analysis of Bisphenol A in Recycled Paper with a Novel Direct Inlet Probe-Atmospheric Pressure Photoionization–IonTrap-MS Simeon Horst 1 • Oliver J. Schmitz 1 Received: 30 June 2017 / Accepted: 31 August 2017 Ó The Nonferrous Metals Society of China and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 Abstract A new ambient ion source was developed and its application to real samples has been demonstrated. This ion source is based on a previously build ion source using chemical ionization under atmospheric pressure and extractive electrospray ionization (DIP-APCI/EESI). To enhance the range of analytes, we added to this ion source a photoionization lamp to enable also photoionization, which allows the possibility to analyze polar (EESI), middle (APCI) and non-polar (APPI) analytes with the same source and with no or only a small change of the setup. In comparison with DIP-APCI, this ion source reaches similar analytical limits but shows better sensitivity for some aromatic and non-polar analytes. The analysis of bisphenol A from extracts of recycled paper demonstrates the use of this ion source for real samples. Quantification was possi- ble by the use of a deuterated internal standard that was added to the papers before extraction. Here atmospheric pressure chemical ionization leads to bad results due to ion suppression, whereas atmospheric pressure photoionization shows results that fit to literature values. Keywords Ambient ionization Á Bisphenol A Á Atmospheric pressure photoionization Á DIP-APPI Á Recycled paper 1 Introduction Bisphenol A is a widespread chemical that is used beside others in paper industry [1–3]. Here bisphenol A can be found within black ink as well as reacting agent in receipts [4]. Toxicological studies show several risks of bisphenol A such as moderate toxicity as well as teratogenic, car- cinogenic or estrogenic effects [1, 3]. Due to its widespread use, bisphenol A is found in lots of different matrices such as river water, foodstuff, tissues, body fluids or recycled papers [3, 5]. While concentrations in surface waters are in the lower lgL -1 range it can be found in papers in con- centrations that ranged from higher lg kg -1 to lower mg kg -1 [4, 6, 7]. Increased bisphenol A levels have been observed in recycled papers compared with non-recycled papers [4, 6]. As a result of the use of recycled papers in food industry as packing material or as paper towels, the exposure to bisphenol A is increased. Therefore, a fast analytical quality control could be helpful. In the literature, different methods are described for the determination of bisphenol A including sample preparation followed by gas or liquid chromatographic separation, which are time and chemical consuming [3–7]. In the last years, the idea of green chemistry, which means environmental parameters, such as energy and sol- vent consumption as well as waste production, have become more important even in analytical chemistry. Hence, methods are favored that offer less waste produc- tion and decrease the energy and solvent consumption. For mass spectrometric analysis this can be achieved by the use of ambient ion sources. Since the first publications in 2004 and 2005 by Taka ´ts et al. [8] and Cody et al. [9], numbers of different ambient ion sources have been introduced [10, 11]. All have in common that they need no or less sample preparation and & Oliver J. Schmitz oliver.schmitz@uni-due.de 1 Applied Analytical Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitaetsstr. 5, 45141 Essen, Germany 123 J. Anal. Test. DOI 10.1007/s41664-017-0034-4