Strategy for the co-extraction and simultaneous quantification of organic pollutants and heavy metals by the on-line hyphenation of magnetic field-assisted in-tube solid phase microextraction and chromatographic technique

Abstract

Due to the distinct difference in chemical properties, analysis of organic pollutants and heavy metals generally employs different sample preparation and measurement techniques, resulting in low analytical efficiency and high cost. To this end, a strategy for the co-extraction and then simultaneous quantification of organic pollutants and heavy metals was proposed by the on-line hyphenation of magnetic field-assisted in-tube solid phase microextraction (MA/IT-SPME) and HPLC technique. Simultaneous analysis of triazoles and chromium species were adopted as paradigm to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed strategy. Firstly, ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (APD) was used to coordinate with Cr(III) and Cr(VI) to form metal organic complexes. And then, a monolith-based capillary column mingled with magnetic nanoparticles (MBC) was target-tailored and employed as the extraction medium of MA/IT-SPME. Results uncovered that the application of magnetic fields at extraction procedure increased the co-extraction efficiency from 46.2-75.3% to 80.5-98.0%. Under the beneficial parameters, the established on-line hyphenation method was successfully applied to simultaneously measure triazoles and chromium species in water and soil samples. The current study not only provides a valuable basis for the realization of simultaneous treatment and analysis of organic pollutants and heavy metals, but also greatly expands the application scenarios of IT-SPME.

Environmental implication

Organic pollutants and heavy metals belong to hazardous substances. Traditional analysis of the two classes of pollutants generally employs different sample preparation and measurement techniques, resulting in low analytical efficiency and high cost. To this end, a strategy for the co-extraction and then simultaneous quantification of organic pollutants and heavy metals was proposed by the on-line hyphenation of magnetic field-assisted in-tube solid phase microextraction (MA/IT-SPME) and HPLC technique. The current study not only provides a valuable basis for the realization of simultaneous treatment and analysis of organic pollutants and heavy metals, but also greatly expands the application scenarios of IT-SPME.