Silver nanoparticles supported onto a stainless steel wire for direct-immersion solid-phase microextraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons prior to their determination by GC-FID

Abstract

The authors describe a new coating for use in solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were prepared by using gallic acid or glucose as the reducing agents, and then supported onto a stainless steel wire that was previously coated with a silver mirror. Coating with AgNPs was performed by a layer-by-layer approach of up to eight cycles of consecutive deposition of AgNPs and the thiol linker 1,8-octanedithiol. This procedure allows proper control of the coating thickness. Thicknesses are 3.2 μm and 3.5 μm with AgNPs obtained with gallic acid and glucose, respectively. This is in agreement with theoretical estimations (3.8 μm). The fibers were used in the direct-immersion SPME-GC-FID determination of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from different waters. The performance of the method was compared to the one using polydimethylsiloxane fibers (100 μm), which is the most suitable commercial SPME fiber for PAHs. Despite the low thickness of the AgNP coatings (compared to PDMS), the analytical features of the method using the most adequate coating (AgNPs prepared with gallic acid) include: (a) limits of detection down to 0.6 ng·mL; (b) intra-day, inter-day, and inter-fiber precisions (expressed as RSDs) lower than 22, 26 and 25%, respectively; and (c) an operational lifetime of ~150 extractions/desorption cycles. The analysis of various spiked environmental waters using these fibers resulted in adequate analytical performance. Graphical abstract Silver nanoparticle based coatings for solid-phase microextraction fibers were prepared by a layer-by-layer approach. They were used for determination of 16 PAHs in waters by gas chromatography. Limits of detection are < 14 μg·L and intra-day, inter-day, and inter-fiber precisions are <26%.

Diamond nanoparticles coating for in‐tube solid‐phase microextraction to detect polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

“…A nanostructured Cu‐Cr‐Al ternary layered double hydroxide/polythiophene coating was applied for the analysis of the perphenazine and chlorpromazine in human urine and plasma samples . Silver nanoparticles as a fiber SPME coating were used to test 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from different water samples . Diamond nanoparticles are rich in carboxyl, hydroxyl and other functional groups on the surface and will create much stronger adhesion energies in aqueous solution .…”

Recent Applications and Newly Developed Strategies of Solid-Phase Microextraction in Contaminant Analysis: Through the Environment to Humans

“…These studies, in terms of numbers, are followed by works in which new strategies in using SPME are presented, e.g., new coupling with mass spectrometer equipment [27][28][29] or the development of a new mechanically robust SPME sampler for the on-site sampling [30]. The involved classes of molecules are various and include both pollutants traditionally investigated such as PAHs [19,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) [33,[42][43][44][45], and new polluting molecules such as dyes [46], additives for materials [14], new pesticides [47][48][49][50][51][52][53], antibiotics [54][55][56][57], pollutants coming from a number of polluting processes including those in industries [58][59][60], and last but not least, ultraviolet filters, whose determination in natural water is one of the issues that is attracting greater interest [37,[61][62][63][64][65][66]...…”

“…The investigation of PAHs is still current, and despite the numerous studies already present in the literature, PAHs are the target in many studies because of their high relevance as pollutants, and for this reason, they are also used as reference compounds to test new SPME uses and coating materials [74,75]. Some noteworthy applications report the successful analysis in environmental waters using coating based on polymer materials [31], MOF [19,[32][33][34], mesoporous carbon materials [35], polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSSs) [36], titanium dioxide-nanosheets [37], coatings based on nanoparticles [38,75], nanotubes (MONTs) [39,40], and material derived from low-cost waste such as biochar [41]. The latter analytical strategy seems particularly interesting as it opens new scenarios involving the recovery of waste materials and their exploitation in an analytical context.…”

Layer‐by‐layer self‐assembly of a novel covalent organic frameworks microextraction coating for analyzing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from aqueous solutions via gas chromatography

“…Usually, these commercially available fibers were assembled using a polymer thin‐film coating on a finely fused silica fiber, which exhibits some drawbacks such as relatively expensive, low recommended operation temperature, instability in organic solvents, easy exfoliation of the coating, short lifetime, and difficulty to prepare in the laboratory. To overcome these limitations, many researchers have made great efforts to prepare metal‐based SPME fibers, such as stainless‐steel wire (SSW) , copper wire , platinum wire , aluminum wire , titanium wire , and silver wire . Myriad coatings for the SPME fiber have also been introduced, including carbon nanotubes , metal oxide , graphene/graphene oxide , poly(ionic liquids) , metal‐organic frameworks , and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) .…”