Ionic liquid-assisted liquid-phase microextraction based on the solidification of floating organic droplets combined with high performance liquid chromatography for the determination of benzoylurea insecticide in fruit juice

Abstract

A green, simple, and efficient method, ionic liquid-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction based on the solidification of floating organic droplets (ILSFOD-LLME) collected via a bell-shaped collection device (BSCD) coupled to high performance liquid chromatography with a variable-wavelength detector, was developed for the preconcentration and analysis of seven benzoylurea insecticides (BUs) in fruit juice. In the proposed method, the low-density solvent 1-dodecanol and the ionic liquid trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium hexafluorophosphate ([P14, 6, 6, 6]PF6) were used as extractant. The extraction solvent droplet was easily collected and separated by the BSCD without centrifugation. The experimental parameters were optimized by the one-factor-at-a-time approach and were followed using an orthogonal array design. The results indicated the different effects of each parameter for extraction efficiency. Under the optimal conditions in the water model, the limits of detection for the analytes varied from 0.03 to 0.28μgL−1. The enrichment factors ranged from 160 to 246. Linearities were achieved for hexaflumuron and flufenoxuron in the range of 0.5–500μgL−1, for triflumuron, lufenuron and diafenthiuron in the range of 1–500μgL−1, and for diflubenzuron and chlorfluazuron in the range of 5–500μgL−1; the correlation coefficients for the BUs ranged from 0.9960 to 0.9990 with recoveries of 75.6–113.9%. Finally, the developed technique was successfully applied to real fruit juice with acceptable results. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the seven BUs at two spiked levels (50 and 200μgL−1) varied between 0.1% and 7.3%.