Determination of fuel dialkyl ethers and BTEX in water using headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography–flame ionization detection

Abstract

A simple procedure for the determination of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), ethyl butyl ether (EBE), tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) in water using headspace (HS) solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was developed. The analysis was carried out by gas chromatography (GC) equipped with flame ionization detector (FID) and 100% dimethylpolysiloxane fused capillary column. A 2 7–4 Plackett–Burman design for screening and a central composite design (CCD) for optimizing the significant variables were applied. Fiber type, extraction temperature, sodium chloride concentration, and headspace volume were the significant variables. A 65 μm poly(dimethylsiloxane)-divinylbenzene (PDMS-DVB) SPME fiber, 10 °C, 300 g/l, and 20 ml of headspace (in 40 ml vial) were respectively chosen for the best extraction response. An extraction time of 10 min was enough to extract the ethers and BTEX. The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) for the procedure varied from 2.6 (benzene) to 8.5% (ethylbenzene). The method detection limits (MDLs) found were from 0.02 (toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) to 1.1 μg/l (MTBE). The optimized method was applied to the analysis of the rivers, marinas and fishing harbors surface waters from Gipuzkoa (North Spain). Three sampling were done in 1 year from June 2002 to June 2003. Toluene was the most detected analyte (in 90% of the samples analyzed), with an average concentration of 0.56 μg/l. MTBE was the only dialkyl ether detected (in 15% of the samples) showing two high levels over 400 μg/l that were related to accidental fuel spill.