Application of Switchable Hydrophobicity Solvents for Extraction of Emerging Contaminants in Wastewater Samples.

Guillermo Lasarte-Aragonés,Carla Toledo-Neira,Ricardo Salazar,Alejandro Álvarez-Lueje

doi:10.3390/molecules25010086

Guillermo Lasarte-Aragonés, Carla Toledo-Neira + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25010086

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Abstract

In the present work, the effectiveness of switchable hydrophobicity solvents (SHSs) as extraction solvent (N,N-Dimethylcyclohexylamine (DMCA), N,N-Diethylethanamine (TEA), and N,N-Benzyldimethylamine (DMBA)) for a variety of emerging pollutants was evaluated. Different pharmaceutical products (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), hormones, and triclosan) were selected as target analytes, covering a range of hydrophobicity (LogP) of 3.1 to 5.2. The optimized procedure was used for the determination of the target pharmaceutical analytes in wastewater samples as model analytical problem. Absolute extraction recoveries were in the range of 51% to 103%. The presented method permits the determination of the target analytes at the low ng mL−1 level, ranging from 0.8 to 5.9 (except for Triclosan, 106 ng mL−1) with good precision (relative standard deviation lower than 6%) using high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with ultraviolet (DAD) and fluorescence (FLR) detection. The microextraction alternative resulted in a fast, simple, and green method for a wide variety of analytes in environmental water sample. The results suggest that this type of solvent turns out to be a great alternative for the determination of different analytes in relatively complex water samples.

Highlights

IntroductionSelectivity and sensitivity of most analytical determination can be considerably decreased in such scenarios, especially in routine chromatographic or capillary electrophoresis methods
Analysis of environmental or biological samples deals very often with complex matrix and the presence of several additional chemical species, which impact significantly on the instrumental determination of the target analytes, in particular, for those at very low concentration level [1,2,3].Selectivity and sensitivity of most analytical determination can be considerably decreased in such scenarios, especially in routine chromatographic or capillary electrophoresis methods
Three different solvents were evaluated as potential microextraction switchable hydrophilicity solvents (SHS) candidates: N,NDimethylcyclohexylamine (DMCA), N,N-Diethylethanamine (TEA), and N,N-Benzyldimethylamine

Summary

Introduction

Selectivity and sensitivity of most analytical determination can be considerably decreased in such scenarios, especially in routine chromatographic or capillary electrophoresis methods To overcome those limitations, sample pretreatment steps to isolate and preconcentrate analytes of interest have been implemented in analytical procedures [4]. The analytical community efforts were focused in fast, inexpensive, and reduced solvent-usage alternatives in a miniaturized format [11]. These groups of innovations for more efficient and reduced environmental-impact solvents led to the dawn of green chemistry and green analytical chemistry [12,13,14]. As a result of this effort came the concept of a solvent in which it is possible to trigger a drastic change in the properties of a solvent; subsequently, the same could be used for several consecutive process steps [15] reducing the overall waste and consumption

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