Fabric-phase sorptive extraction coupled with ion mobility spectrometry for on-site rapid detection of PAHs in aquatic environment

The contamination of water is a high risk to human health, so there is an urgent need to rapidly detect water pollution in the field. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is suitable for on-site analysis with the merit of rapid analysis and compact size. In this study, we developed a new method which coupled fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) with IMS for rapid detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water present in the field. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was coated on the glass fiber cloth through a sol-gel reaction. After extracting the PAHs in water, the fabric coated PDMS could be directly put into the inlet of IMS instrument for thermal desorption. The PAHs were analyzed by the IMS instrument operated in the positive ion mode with a corona discharge (CD) ionization source. The primary parameters affecting extraction efficiency such as extraction time, extraction temperature, and ionic strength were investigated and optimized by using phenanthrene (Phe), benzo[a]anthracene (BaA) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) as model compounds. Under the optimal conditions, the FPSE-IMS detection limits were 5 ng ml(-1),8 ng ml and 10 ng ml(-1) respectively. Satisfactory recoveries were obtained in the range from 80.5% to 100.5% by testing the spiked real water samples and validated by the standard method (HJ487-2009). Based on the results, the method of FPSE-IMS could be feasibly applied for monitoring the water quality on-site and providing early warning in the field.