A sublimate sorbent for stir-bar sorptive extraction of aqueous endocrine disruptor pesticides for gas chromatography-electron capture detection.

A dumbbell-shaped magnetic stir-bar with sublimate sorbent was prepared for the stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) of pesticides in an aqueous sample prior to gas chromatography-micro-electron capture detection (GC-μECD). Cyclododecane (CDD) was coated onto a magnetic stir-bar surface as a sublimate sorbent, and steel balls were placed on both ends to form a dumbbell-shaped magnetic stir-bar for SBSE. Four EDC pesticides including chlorpyrifos, ethion, bromopropylate, and λ-cyhalothrin in aqueous samples were selected as model species to examine the proposed SBSE and the following desorption. The parameters studied were those affecting the extraction efficiencies including the coating (solvent for CDD and thickness), extraction (sample pH, stirring rate, time, and salting out effect), dissolution solvent volume, and the loss of CDD sublimated in air. The maximum extraction efficiency was obtained under the following conditions. The stir bar (with CDD thickness of 5.2 μm) was added into a 10 mL sample solution (at pH 7) for a 20-min extraction at 600 rpm. Then, the stir bar was gently removed from the sample solution, disassembled, and immersed into a 0.2 mL insert tube consisting of 3 μL hexane to dissolve; 1 μL was used for GC-ECD analysis. The linear ranges were 0.005-5 μg L-1 with coefficients of determination ranging from 0.9950 - 0.9994. Detection limits (based on S/N = 3) of the four EDCs were 0.4-4.5 ngL-1 with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.4-6.3%, and quantitation limits (based on S/N = 5) were 1-15 ngL-1. The relative recoveries of the spiked samples were in the range of 83.2-98.7% with RSDs of 2.1-8.4% in farm field waters. The proposed sublimation sorbent obtained excellent enrichment factors (101-834) and provided a simple, rapid, sensitive, and eco-friendly sample preparation method.