Cross-linked starch-based polymer as an SPE material for the determination of nitrophenols at trace levels in environmental water

Abstract

SPE using a cross-linked starch-based polymer (CSMDI) as an adsorbent for the determination of four nitrophenols at trace levels from aqueous solution was investigated. The CSMDI was synthesized from native starch using 4,4'-methylenebisphenyldiisocyanate as a cross-linking agent in dry DMF. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency including the pH of the water sample, type of eluent and its volume, flow rate, sample volume, and methanol content were investigated and optimized. The optimized results exhibited excellent linear relationships (R(2) > 0.995) for all the nitrophenols over the range of 2.0-200 ng/mL, with the RSD values in the range of 2.9-5.7% (n = 5). The LODs ranged from 0.08-0.34 ng/mL (S/N = 3) for the four nitrophenols tested under optimum conditions. The developed method has been successfully applied for the analysis of several real environmental water samples including tap, river, and reservoir water. These results indicated that the CSMDI had a tremendous potential for the enrichment and determination of nitrophenols at trace levels in environmental water samples.