Using Zn/Al layered double hydroxide as a novel solid-phase extraction adsorbent to extract polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at trace levels in water samples prior to the determination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

This paper demonstrates, for the first time, the great potential of using Zn/Al layered double hydroxide intercalated sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (Zn/Al-SDBS-LDH) as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) material in the extraction of persistent organic pollutants prior to the determination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in environmental water samples. Zn/Al-SDBS-LDH, a relatively inexpensive and simply prepared material, was synthesized and used as a SPE adsorbent to quantitatively determine the concentration of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental water samples. Factors affecting extraction efficiency, such as, eluent type, eluent volume, flow rate of sample, sample volume, and amount of adsorbent, were investigated and optimized in detail. Experimental results indicate that there is an excellent linear relationship between peak area and the concentration of PAHs over the range of 5-500 ng L-1, and the precisions (relative standard deviation (RSD)) were 2.5-6.3 % under the optimum conditions. Based on the ratio of chromatographic signal-to-base line noise (S/N = 3), the limits of detection could reach 1.2-3.2 ng L-1. This novel method was successfully applied to the analysis of PAHs in environmental water samples. As such, we show here that the use of Zn/Al-SDBS-LDH as SPE adsorbent materials, coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, is an excellent improvement in the routine analysis of PAHs at trace levels in the environment.