Magnetic ionic liquids as non conventional extraction solvents for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
This work describes the applicability of magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) in the analytical determination of a group of heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Three different MILs, namely, benzyltrioctylammonium bromotrichloroferrate (III) (MIL A) methoxybenzyltrioctylammonium bromotrichloroferrate (III) (MIL B) and 1,12 di(3 benzylbenzimidazolium) dodecane bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl)]imide bromotrichloroferrate (III) (MIL C) were designed to exhibit hydrophobic properties, and their performance examined in a microextraction method for hydrophobic analytes. The magnet assisted approach with these MILs was performed in combination with high performance liquid chromatography and fluorescence detection. The study of the extraction performance showed that MIL A was the most suitable solvent for the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and under optimum conditions the fast extraction step required ~20 mL of MIL A for 10 mL of aqueous sample, 24 mmol L( 1) NaOH, high ionic strength content of NaCl (25% (w/v) 500 mL of acetone as dispersive solvent, and 5 min of vortex. The desorption step required the aid of an external magnetic field with a strong NdFeB magnet (the separation requires few seconds) two back extraction steps for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons retained in the MIL droplet with n hexane, evaporation and reconstitution with acetonitrile. The overall method presented limits of detection down to 5 ng L( 1) relative recoveries ranging from 91.5 to 119% and inter day reproducibility values (expressed as relative standard derivation) lower than 16.4% for a spiked level of 0.4 mg L( 1) (n 9) The method was also applied for the analysis of real samples, including tap water, wastewater, and tea infusion.
Analytica chimica acta