Polydopamine modified ordered mesoporous carbon for synergistic enhancement of enrichment efficiency and mass transfer towards phenols

Abstract

Integrating the steps of direct carbonization, removal of silica and polymerization of dopamine, four ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) doping with different constituents were prepared and characterized successfully, which were proved to possess similar ordered mesopore structure, high surface area and different hydrophilic properties. Subsequently, a series of pollutants were selected as target analytes to investigate the enrichment capacities of as-prepared OMCs based on the technique of solid phase microextraction (SPME). It was found that the OMC modified with polydopamine (OMC@PDA) demonstrated outstanding performance towards phenols, since its hydrophilicity was enhanced by PDA. Moreover, two extraction modes were employed to study the extraction process, including headspace and direct immersion. The synergistic enhancement effect of enrichment efficiency and mass transfer towards phenols using the OMC@PDA-coated fiber was demonstrated in the mode of direct immersion. To realize the target of high sensitivity, the OMC@PDA-coated fiber was coupled with the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) after optimizations to develop analytical method. Wide linear range (5–5000 ng L−1), low detection limits (0.08–0.38 ng L−1) and excellent reproducibility made the developed method feasible for the determinations of trace phenols in environmental water samples.