Functionalized carbon nanotube-polyaniline composite coating for on-line microextraction on a screw coupled with high performance liquid chromatography to determine opium alkaloids.

Abstract

Anovel and efficient on-line microextraction on a screw coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography with an ultraviolet-visible detector was developed to extract and determine trace quantities of five opium alkaloids. All detections of the analytes were achieved at 210 nm. The surface of the screw grooves was electrochemically coated with the carbon nanotubes-COOH/polyaniline composite. The surface characterization was assessed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The prepared screw was inserted into a cartridge of a guard column, and then the constructed microextraction on a screw device was placed in the loop of a six-port HPLC injection valve. The parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the analytes were optimized using the one variable-at-a-time method. The effective parameters for the extraction efficiency of the analytes, including sample volume, extraction time, sampling flow rate, desorption solvent type, ionic strength, and pH were investigated and optimized. Under optimal conditions, the detection limits were 3-10 μg L-1, and the linear dynamic ranges were 10-2000 μg L-1 with a coefficient of determination greater than 0.9940. The inter-day and intra-day (n = 3) relative standard deviations were less than 7% and 5%, respectively. The proposed method was simple and reproducible, with an acceptable relative recovery (90-108%) for determining opium alkaloids in water and urine samples.