Use of a Natural Sorbent as Alternative Solid-Phase Microextraction Coating for the Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water Samples by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

In this study, the use of bracts as a natural sorbent in solid-phase microextraction was exploited for use in the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water samples with separation/detection performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Fiber-to-fiber reproducibility was evaluated and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was lower than 14%. Optimizations were performed using both the proposed and DVB/Car/PDMS (divinylbenzene/ carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane) fibers. The optimum extraction conditions were 80 min of extraction at 50 °C with 12% (m/v) NaCl for the bract fiber, and 100 min of extraction at 80 °C for the commercial fiber. The limits of detection and quantification for the proposed fiber were, respectively, 0.003 and 0.01 µg L-1 for fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene and pyrene, and 0.03 and 0.1 µg L-1 for acenaphthylene, benzo(a)anthracene and chrysene. The method using bract fiber provided relative recoveries ranging from 68 to 117%, intraday and interday precisions lower than 17 and 19%, respectively, and extraction efficiency similar to that of the DVB/Car/PDMS fiber.

Alternative Green Extraction Phases Applied to Microextraction Techniques for Organic Compound Determination

“…In addition, the biosorbent-based fiber provided efficient extractions when compared with the commercial mixed coating fiber DVB/Car/PDMS. In 2018, bract fiber was used for the determination of PAH's in water samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [21]. In this study, the LODs varied from 0.003 to 0.03 µg L −1 (Table 1).…”

“…Both materials are similar; however, the cork powder presents a better attachment to the nitinol wire, so it is easier to handle. Bract has been used as an environmentally friendly and low-cost biosorbent coating for SPME for the determination of OCPs in river and lake water [20] and PAH's in river water [21] ( Table 1). The characterization of bract fiber carried out by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), SEM and FTIR showed that the fiber offers satisfactory thermal stability with no decomposition observed up to 260 • C. SEM micrographs presented a highly porous and rough morphology and a film thickness of approximately 60 µm [20].…”

Novel solid‐phase microextraction fiber coatings: A review

“…And this kind of unrecyclable material, like nanoparticle, are likely to exert negative effects on the environment and human beings, like damaging the DNA of plants and degrading the quality of air [162]. However, looking away from chemistry to nature, it's surprising to find that polysaccharides in natural products could be excellent alternatives [163][164][165][166]. Cellulose, chitin, lignin as well as suberin are the four kinds of frequently used polysaccharides.…”

A low-cost approach using diatomaceous earth biosorbent as alternative SPME coating for the determination of PAHs in water samples by GC-MS

“…Many of these biosorbents can be found in the environment and are formed by macromolecules containing various functional groups that are available to interact with different types of contaminants. Our research group has previously used natural sorbents for the determination of organic contaminants using SPME [17,18]. Diatomaceous earth is of particular interest as a new biosorbent since it is discarded in large scale as a waste from breweries, where it is used for the clarification and filtration of organic materials and beers [19].…”