Entrapment of polyethylene terephthalate derived carbon in Ca-alginate beads for solid phase extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from environmental water samples

Abstract

• Novel SPE sorbent based on PET based AC were prepared by a facile cross-linking procedure. • GAC shows outstanding efficiency for PAHs extraction from environmental water samples. • The proposed SPE method illustrated high sensitivity and precision. In this study, granular activated carbon (GAC) from polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) bottle waste was employed for the solid phase extraction (SPE) of trace levels of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental waters. The structure of GAC was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) adsorption technique. Using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with an ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV) system, the produced porous sorbent was used for the extraction and measurement of trace levels of PAHs. Due to its high porosity and easy collection, the GAC can be considered as a potential solid phase sorbent towards PAHs. The experimental factors such as GAC mass, sorption time, elution solvent and salt concentration were explored and optimized. The linear dynamic ranges and detection limits under optimal conditions were in the range of 0.1-200 ng mL -1 and 0.01-0.07 ng mL -1 , respectively. The analysis of PAHs in the real water samples using this platform was successfully investigated with appropriate recovery values (93.5% to 102.2%).