Preparation of monolithic fibers for the solid-phase microextraction of chlorophenols in water samples

Monolithic fibers were synthesized and applied for the solid-phase microextraction and determination of chlorophenols in environmental water samples by coupling with HPLC. The fibers were prepared by copolymerization of vinylimidazole and ethylene dimethacrylate as functional monomer and cross-linker, respectively. The effect of the preparation conditions of monolithic fibers on the extraction efficiencies was investigated in detail. Several characteristic techniques, such as elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, mercury-intrusion porosimetry, and SEM were used to characterize the monolithic material. The effect of the extraction parameters, including desorption solvent, extraction and desorption time, pH values, and ionic strength in sample matrix on the extraction performance was investigated thoroughly. Under the improved extraction conditions, the linear ranges of 2-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and pentachlorophenol were 1.0-200 g/L and 2.0-200 g/L for 2,4,6-trichlorophenol. The detection limits (S/N = 3) were in the range of 0.16-0.45 g/L, the RSDs for intraday and interday precisions were <7.0%. Finally, the proposed method was successfully used to detect different environmental water samples. The recoveries of spiked water samples were ranged from 90.0 to 115%. At the same time, satisfactory repeatability was achieved with RSDs < 9.0%.