Novel sample preparation technique based on functional nanofiber mat for sensitive and precise determination of phenolic environmental estrogens in environmental water

Abstract

The present study describes a novel sample preparation technique for phenolic environmental estrogens (PEEs), including bisphenol A (BPA), nonylphenol (NP) and octylphenol (OP), in environmental water samples. A hydrazine-modified polyacrylonitrile (HM-PAN) nanofiber mat, with subsequent amino group functionalization, was prepared using the electrospinning technique. A disk solid-phase extraction (SPE) was developed utilizing the functional nanofiber mat as a sorbent for extraction of PEEs prior to high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The critical factors affecting the extraction efficiency of the sorbent for the target analytes were tested and optimized. Under optimized conditions, a simple and fast sample preparation procedure was achieved using a home-made disk SPE device, with noticeably reduced sorbent bed mass (4.0 mg) and eluent volume (600 μL). The detection limits for the targeted PEEs were in the range of 0.01–0.03 ng mL⁻¹ (S/N = 3). We validated the applicability of the proposed method using four real environmental water samples and satisfactory spiked recoveries were achieved in the range of 84.6–101.9% with low RSD ≤ 8.6% (n = 6). A comparison of the present method with the existing methods for the determination of PEEs was made and the results showed that the proposed method had better recoveries, sensitivity and reproducibility. The results demonstrated that the HM-PAN nanofiber mat-based SPE technique was a viable alternative for sensitive and precise analysis of PEEs in environmental water.