A novel dispersive micro solid phase extraction using zein nanoparticles as the sorbent combined with headspace solid phase micro-extraction to determine chlorophenols in water and honey samples by GC-ECD.

This study presents a new technique, dispersive micro solid phase extraction (DMSPE) combined with headspace solid phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) for extraction and determination of chlorophenols (CPs) in water and honey samples using a Gas Chromatography-Electron Capture Detector (GC-ECD). Zein nanoparticles were made by liquid-liquid dispersion and applied for the first time as the sorbent phase in DMSPE. In the proposed DMSPE-HS-SPME method, 1% w/v of ethanolic zein solution was added to an aqueous sample and then a dose of the in-situ generated zein nanoparticles was applied to a pre-concentration of target analytes. Thermal desorption of analytes was performed after the isolating sorbent phase, and then HS-SPME was applied for enrichment prior to introducing to gas chromatography. All the important parameters influencing efficiency of the extraction process such effects of salt, pH, sorbent concentration, temperature, sorbent solution volume in DMSPE procedure, extraction temperature, extraction time, desorption temperature and time in the HS-SPME procedure were investigated and optimized. Results showed that under optimum extraction conditions, detection limits (signal to noise ratio=3) were in the range of 0.08-0.6 ng mL(-1) and evaluations for relative standard deviations (RSDs %) were between 6.62% and 8.36%.