Development of relatively selective, chemically and mechanically robust solid-phase microextraction fibers based on methacrylic acid–trimethylolpropanetrimethacrylate co-polymers

Graphene reinforced multiple monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction of phenoxyacetic acid herbicides in complex samples

To increase the specific surface area (SSA) of monolith-based adsorbent for the extraction of phenoxyacetic acid herbicides (PAAs) in complex samples, graphene was embedded in an adsorbent based on poly (4-vinylpyridine-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) monolith (GEM). The new adsorbent was employed as extraction phase of multiple monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction (MMF-SPME). The influences of preparation conditions and extraction parameters on the enrichment performance of GEM/MMF-SPME for PAAs were investigated in detail. Results well indicated that the embedded graphene could obviously enhance the SSA of the adsorbent and introduce π-π electrostatic stacking groups. The prepared GEM/MMF-SPME could extract PAAs effectively by means of π-π electrostatic stacking, hydrophobic, ion-exchange and hydrogen bonding interactions. Under the most favorable conditions, a convenient, sensitive, cost-effective and environmentally friendly method for the determination of trace PAAs in water and rice samples was developed by the combination of GEM/MMF-SPME and high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). Results showed that for water sample, the limits of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) and limit of quantification (LOQ, S/N = 10) values were in the range of 0.093-0.12 μg/L and 0.31-0.41 μg/L, respectively. The corresponding values in rice sample were 0.36-0.66 μg/kg and 1.18-2.27 μg/kg, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to quantify trace PAAs in water and rice samples. Recoveries achieved for water and rice samples at different spiked concentrations were in the ranges of 70.0-118% and 70.0-117%, respectively. The RSDs varied from 0.3% to 10% for all analytes. The results well revealed the potential application of GEM/MMF-SPME as an effective sample preparation processes for the monitoring of PAAs in water, rice and other complex samples.

Expanding the Applicability of Poly(Ionic Liquids) in Solid Phase Microextraction: Pyrrolidinium Coatings

Crosslinked pyrrolidinium-based poly(ionic liquids) (Pyrr-PILs) were synthesized through a fast, simple, and solventless photopolymerization scheme, and tested as solid phase microextraction (SPME) sorbents. A series of Pyrr-PILs bearing three different alkyl side chain lengths with two, eight, and fourteen carbons was prepared, characterized, and homogeneously coated on a steel wire by using a very simple procedure. The resulting coatings showed a high thermal stability, with decomposition temperatures above 350 °C, excellent film stability, and lifetime of over 100 injections. The performance of these PIL-based SPME fibers was evaluated using a mixture of eleven organic compounds with different molar volumes and chemical functionalities (alcohols, ketones, and monoterpenes). The Pyrr-PIL fibers were obtained as dense film coatings, with 67 μm thickness, with an overall sorption increase of 90% and 55% as compared to commercial fibers of Polyacrylate (85 μm) (PA85) and Polydimethylsiloxane (7 μm) (PDMS7) coatings, respectively. A urine sample doped with the sample mixture was used to study the matrix effect and establish relative recoveries, which ranged from 60.2% to 104.1%.

Phenyl-functionalization of titanium dioxide-nanosheets coating fabricated on a titanium wire for selective solid-phase microextraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from environment water samples

A novel titanium dioxide-nanosheets coating on a titanium wire (TiO2NS-Ti) was in situ fabricated by one-step electrochemical anodization in ethylene glycol with ammonium fluoride and followed by phenyl-functionalization for selective solid-phase microextraction (SPME). The fabricated TiO2NS coating exhibits higher specific surface area and more active sites, it also provides an ideal nanostructure and a robust substrate for subsequent surface modification. These characteristics were useful for efficient extraction. The SPME performance of phenyl-functionalized TiO2NS-Ti (ph-TiO2NS-Ti) fiber was evaluated by using ultraviolet filters, polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as model compounds coupled to high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection (HPLC-UV). It was found that the ph-TiO2NS-Ti fiber exhibited high extraction capability, good selectivity and rapid mass transfer for PAHs. The main parameters affecting extraction performance were investigated and optimized. Under optimized conditions, the proposed fiber showed good extraction efficiency comparable to those of commercial polydimethylsiloxane and polyacrylate fibers toward PAHs. The calibration graphs were linear over the range of 0.05-300 µg L(-1). The limits of detection of the proposed method were 0.008-0.043 µg L(-1) (S/N=3). Single fiber repeatability varied from 3.51% to 5.23% and fiber-to-fiber reproducibility ranged from 4.43% to 7.65% for the extraction of water spiked with 25 µg L(-1) each analyte (n=5). The established SPME-HPLC-UV method was successfully applied to selective concentration and sensitive determination of target PAHs from real environmental water samples with recoveries from 86.2% to 112% at the spiking level of 10 µg L(-1) and 50 µg L(-1). The relative standard deviations were below 9.45%. Furthermore, the ph-TiO2NS-Ti fiber can be fabricated in a reproducible manner, and has high stability and long service lifetime.

Development of a poly(ethylene glycol)–graphene oxide sol–gel coating for solid-phase microextraction of aromatic amines in water samples with a gas chromatography-flame ionization detector method

The wrinkled structure of a PEG–GO sol–gel coating increases the surface area on the fiber, the speeds of extraction and desorption steps and sample capacity.

ZnO nanorod coating for solid phase microextraction and its applications for the analysis of aldehydes in instant noodle samples

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods based solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coating was directly prepared on stainless steel wires using in situ hydrothermal growth method. This coating has high surface-to-volume ratio with a diameter in the range of 300-500 nm and a thickness of about 3-5 μm. A guiding tube was introduced into the laboratory-made SPME fiber to protect the ZnO nanorods coating from shaving, which significantly improved the method repeatability and prolonged the service life of the coating. The extraction properties of the prepared fiber were investigated using headspace SPME (HS-SPME) coupled to gas chromatography (GC) for the determination of aldehydes in instant noodle samples. The extraction efficiency of the coating for the five aldehydes was comparable to that of a commercial 85 μm Carboxen/Polydimethylsiloxane fiber, which has been reported to have best affinity towards aldehydes among all commercial fibers. The linear ranges of the proposed HS-SPME-GC method were from 0.05 to 5 μg g⁻¹ (hexanal, nonanal and decanal) and 0.1-5 μg g⁻¹ (heptanal and octanal), with the correlation coefficients from 0.990 to 0.999. The method developed was successfully applied to the determination of five aldehydes in instant noodle samples, and the recoveries were found to be 70.5-129% at the spiking level of 2 μg g⁻¹.

Plunger-in-needle solid-phase microextraction with graphene-based sol-gel coating as sorbent for determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers

A solid-phase microextraction (SPME) device, assembled with a commercially available plunger-in-needle microsyringe, with the plunger coated with graphene via a sol-gel approach, was developed for the gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in environmental samples. This is the first application of graphene-based sol-gel coating as SPME sorbent. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were investigated in detail. The new coating exhibited enrichment factors for PBDEs between 1378 and 2859. The unique planar structure of graphene enhanced the π-π interaction with the aromatic PBDEs; additionally, the sol-gel coating technique created a porous three-dimensional network structure which offered larger surface area for extraction. The stainless steel plunger provided firm support for the coating and enhanced the durability of the assembly. The plunger-in-needle microsyringe represents a ready-made tool for SPME implementation. Under the optimized conditions, the method detection limits for five PBDEs were in the range of 0.2 and 5.3 ng/L (at a signal/noise ratio of 3) and the precision (% relative standard deviation, n=5) was 3.2-5.0% at a concentration level of 100 ng/L. The linearities were 5-1000 or 10-1000 ng/L for different PBDEs. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the extraction and determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of PBDEs in canal water samples.

Recent advances in molecular imprinting technology: current status, challenges and highlighted applications

Molecular imprinting technology (MIT) concerns formation of selective sites in a polymer matrix with the memory of a template. Recently, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have aroused extensive attention and been widely applied in many fields, such as solid-phase extraction, chemical sensors and artificial antibodies owing to their desired selectivity, physical robustness, thermal stability, as well as low cost and easy preparation. With the rapid development of MIT as a research hotspot, it faces a number of challenges, involving biological macromolecule imprinting, heterogeneous binding sites, template leakage, incompatibility with aqueous media, low binding capacity and slow mass transfer, which restricts its applications in various aspects. This critical review briefly reviews the current status of MIT, particular emphasis on significant progresses of novel imprinting methods, some challenges and effective strategies for MIT, and highlighted applications of MIPs. Finally, some significant attempts in further developing MIT are also proposed (236 references).