A platinum wire coated with a composite consisting of poly pyrrole and poly(E⟩-caprolactone) for solid phase microextraction of the antidepressant imipramine prior to its determination via ion mobility spectrometry

A poly(E >-caprolactone) deposited on a platinum wire by electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of poly(E >-caprolactone) is introduced for use in solid-phase microextraction. The resulting fibers were analyzed by FTIR and scanning electron microscopy and are found to be thermally stable up to 280 A degrees C. They were applied to the direct solid-phase microextraction and subsequent ion mobility spectrometric determination of the anti-depressant imipramine. The extraction capability of the fibers was compared to polypyrrole fibers. The effect of four parameters on peak height was investigated by d-optimal experimental design. Under optimized conditions, the detection limits for imipramine are 0.23 mu ga <...L-1 (in urine) and 0.45 mu ga <...L-1 (in plasma). The intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations obtained at 100 mu g L-1, using a single fibre, were found to be 2.5 % and 3.1 %, respectively. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of imipramine in urine and plasma real samples showing recoveries from 105 to 120 % and 91 to 101 %, respectively.