MWCNTs/MnO2 nanocomposite-based polythiophene coating for solid-phase microextraction and determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil

An effective multi-walled carbon nanotubes/manganese dioxide (MWCNTs/MnO2) nanocomposite-based polythiophene coating was prepared by electrodepositing MWCNTs, MnO2, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) on a stainless-steel wire. After the headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) based on the prepared coating, four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with lower boiling point were determined by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID). The extraction efficiency of MWCNTs/MnO2/PEDOT composite coating was nearly 100 times higher than that of pure PEDOT coating, and nearly 20% higher than MWCNTs/PEDOT coating. The proposed HS-SPME-GC-FID analytical method had superior performance with good linearities (0.5-250 ng.g(-1)) and low limits of detection (LOD) (0.1-0.8 ng.g(-1)), which was successfully applied to the determination of PAHs in real soil samples.