This paper describes the novel preparation of three kinds of nanofibers [poly(styrene-co-methacrylic acid), poly(styrene-co-p-styrene sulfonate), polystyrene] investigated as solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbents to extract six compounds (nitrobenzene, 2-naphthol, benzene, n-butyl p-hydroxybenzoate, naphthalene, p-dichlorobenzene) in environmental water by high-performance liquid chromatography. Parameters affecting extraction efficiency were investigated in detail to explore the extraction mechanism of the nanofibers. Under optimized conditions, six compounds followed an excellent linear relationship in the range 10-5,000 ng mL(-1) with coefficients of determination (r (2)) greater than 0.99. The repeatability (expressed as relative standard deviations) was from 3.0 to 7.0%, corresponding to 2.0 mL of water samples at 25 and 500 ng mL(-1) spiked levels for the six compounds. The limits of detection varied from 0.01 to 0.15 ng mL(-1) (signal-to-noise ratio of 3). A comparison of the SPE using nanofibers as sorbents and the most commonly used octadecylsilica SPE cartridges was carried out in terms of absolute recovery, sensitivity, and reproducibility for the compounds investigated. Finally, the method was applied to four real water samples. The results highlighted the importance of functional groups, and the polarity of nanofibers in controlling sorption of target compounds, and clearly showed that the new method could be a viable and environmentally friendly technique for analyzing pollutants in environmental samples.
A novel fiber-packed solid-phase extraction (SPE) tip was designed based on electrospun nanofibers. The tip was used to investigate the extraction of hydrocortisone (HC), cortisone acetate (CA), ethinylestradiol (EE), and estradiol (E2). The effects of diameters, porous figurations, and functional groups of the electrospun fibers on the selectivity and efficiency were studied. The experimental results indicated that the detection limit of cortisol in water sample could be as low as 0.75 ng/mL. When the tip is used for detection of cortisol in human hair the efficiency of biological sample pretreatment is better than the traditional SPE method. Our method could significantly simplify the traditional SPE process and lower the cost. Industrial application of the tip is anticipated.
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