A hybrid material as a sorbent phase for the disposable pipette extraction technique enhances efficiency in the determination of phenolic endocrine-disrupting compounds

Abstract

In this study, the hybrid material 3-n-propyl(3-methylpyridinium) silsesquioxane chloride (Si3Py+Cl−) was synthesized and investigated as a novel sorbent phase for the disposable pipette extraction (DPX) technique coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography-florescence detection. This sorbent phase was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Aqueous samples containing the phenolic endocrine-disrupting compounds bisphenol A (BPA), 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), 4-tert-octylphenol (4-t-OP), 4-octylphenol (4-OP) and 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) were subjected to DPX procedures and a series of optimizations was performed to determine the ideal extraction conditions using this approach. The proposed sorbent phase exhibited higher extraction efficiency than DPX-RP (reversed phase tips containing styrene-divinylbenzene), commonly used for the determination of the phenolic endocrine- disrupting-compounds under study. Satisfactory analytical performance was achieved with linear ranges from 2 to 100μgL−1 for 4-t-OP and 1–100μgL−1 for the other analytes. Limits of detection of 0.60μgL−1 for 4-t-OP and 0.30μgL−1 for other analytes, RSDs ranging from 1 to 20% and relative recoveries of 83–116% were obtained. Based on these satisfactory results, this sorbent phase represents a valuable alternative for the extraction of compounds with polar moieties in their structure.