A novel protocol to monitor trace levels of selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental water using fabric phase sorptive extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection

Abstract

Fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) combines the advanced material properties of sol–gel derived microextraction sorbents and the flexibility and permeability of fabric to create a robust, simple and green sample preparation device. It simultaneously improves the extraction sensitivity and the speed of the extraction by incorporating high volumes of sponge-like, porous sol–gel hybrid inorganic–organic sorbents into permeable fabric substrates that are capable of extracting target analytes directly from both simple and complex aqueous sample matrices. For the first time, this technique was applied to the trace-level determination of selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental water samples using a non-polar sol–gel C18 coated FPSE media. Several extraction parameters were optimized to improve the extraction efficiency and to achieve a high detection sensitivity. Validation tests of spiked samples showed good linearity for four selected PAHs (R2 = 0.9983–0.9997) over a wide range of concentrations (0.010–10 ng/mL). Limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were measured at pg/mL levels; 0.1–1 pg/mL and 0.3–3 pg/mL, respectively. Inter- and intra-day precision tests showed variations of 1.1%–4.1% for four selected PAHs. Average absolute recovery values were in the range of 88.1%–90.5% with relative standard deviations below 5%, surpassing the values predicted by the recovery prediction model. Finally, the developed FPSE-HPLC-FLD protocol was applied to analyze 8 environmental water samples. Out of four selected PAHs, fluoranthene (Flu) and phenanthrene (Phen) were the most frequently detected in four samples, at concentrations of 5.6–7.7 ng/mL and 4.1–11 ng/mL, respectively, followed by anthracene (Anth) and pyrene (Pyr) in two samples. The newly developed FPSE-HPLC-FLD protocol is simple, green, fast and economical, with adequate sensitivity for trace levels of four selected PAHs and seems to be promising for routine monitoring of water quality and safety.