An effective method was established for the simultaneous determination of fifteen glycol ethers and four glycol ether acetates residues in dyeing and finishing additives by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(GC-MS/MS).Residual glycol ethers and their acetates in dyeing and finishing additives were ultrasonically extracted with ethyl acetate as extraction solvent.The extract was then purified using a Waters Sep-Pak Vac Silica(1 g/6 mL) solid phase extraction(SPE) column.The chromatographic separation of 19 target compounds was performed on a DB-Wax(60 m×0.25 mm×0.25 μm) column.GC-MS/MS analysis was carried out in multiple reaction monitoring(MRM) mode

and the concentrations of glycol ethers and their acetates were calibrated by the external standard method.The peak areas(A) for the analytes were linearly related to their mass concentrations(ρ) in each linear range

and the correlation coefficients were no less than 0.999 2.The limits of detection(LODs) and quantitation(LOQs) of the method were calculated by the signal to noise(S/N) ratios of three and ten

respectively.LODs for MOPA and DEGME were both 30 μg/kg

LOD for DEGDEE was 20 μg/kg

LODs for EGEE and EGME were 10 μg/kg

and LODs for the other fourteen target compounds ranged from 1 μg/kg to 5 μg/kg

while LOQs for EGEE

EGME and DEGDEE were 20

30 and 50 μg/kg

respectively

while that for MOPA and DEGME were both 100 μg/kg

and LOQs for the other fourteen varied from 1 μg/kg to 15 μg/kg.The average recoveries at three spiked levels ranged from 82.4% to 94.6% with the relative standard deviations(RSDs) of 2.7% to 9.2%.The proposed method was simple and sensitive

and could meet completely the demands for routine analysis of residual glycol ethers and their acetates in dyeing and finishing additives.