Superhydrophobic Nanosilica Decorated Electrospun Polyethylene Terephthalate Nanofibers for Headspace Solid Phase Microextraction of 16 Organochlorine Pesticides in Environmental Water Samples

Abstract

A new solid phase micro extraction (SPME) fiber coating composed of electrospun polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nanofibrous mat doped with superhydrophobic nanosilica (SiO2) was coated on a stainless-steel wire without the need of a binder. The coating was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) techniques and it was used in headspace-SPME of 16 organochlorine pesticides in water samples prior to gass chromatography micro electron capture detector (GC-µECD) analysis. The effects of main factors such as adsorption composition, electrospinning flow rate, salt concentration, extraction temperature, extraction time, and desorption conditions were investigated. Under the optimum conditions, the linear dynamic range (8–1000 ng L−1, R2 > 0.9907), limits of detection (3–80 ng L−1), limits of quantification (8–200 ng L−1), intra-day and inter-day precisions (at 400 and 1000 ng L−1, 1.7–13.8%), and fiber-to-fiber reproducibility (2.4–13.4%) were evaluated. The analysis of spiked tap, sewage, industrial, and mineral water samples for the determination of the analytes resulted in satisfactory relative recoveries (78–120%).