Application of hydroxyapatite adsorbent packed in needle trap device for sensitive determination of trace levels of phenolic compounds in the air

Abstract

Hydroxyapatites have been known as high adsorption capacity, inexpensive, and available absorbents. In this study, nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) adsorbent was synthesized, characterized, and employed as an efficient absorbent packed inside Needle Trap Device (NTD) as an environmentally friendly technique for sampling and analysis of phenolic compounds (phenol, 2-chlorophenol, o -cresol, and p -cresol) in the air. The effect of important parameters including the carryover, storage capability, repeatability, and reproducibility was investigated by Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The obtained results by the nano-hydroxyapatite packed NTD (nHAP-NTD) showed that the limit of detection and quantification of the studied analytes were in the range of 0.001–0.01 and 0.004–0.023 ng mL −1 , respectively. Also, the storage stability of the studied compounds in the nHAP-NTD was above 98% after 60 days at 4 °C. The finding results indicated a high correlation (R 2 = 0.98) between the proposed method (nHAP-NTD) and the XAD-7 sorbent tube (standard method NIOSH 2546). Finally, the proposed NTD-GC-FID method was successfully used to sample and determine the levels of the phenolic compounds in the real samples. The proposed nHAP-NTD method can be an eco-friendly, reliable, and efficient method for sampling and determination of the phenolic compounds compared to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) method. The proposed graphical abstract .