Application of carbon nanotubes modified with a Keggin polyoxometalate as a new sorbent for the hollow-fiber micro-solid-phase extraction of trace naproxen in hair samples with fluorescence spectrophotometry using factorial experimental design

A sensitive technique to determinate naproxen in hair samples was developed using hollow-fiber micro-solid-phase combined with fluorescence spectrophotometry. The incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified with a Keggin polyoxometalate into a silica matrix prepared by the sol-gel method was reported. In this research, the Keggin carbon nanotubes/silica composite was used in the pores and lumen of a hollow fiber as the hollow-fiber micro-solid-phase extraction device. The device was used for the microextraction of the analyte from hair and water samples under the optimized conditions. An orthogonal array experimental design with an OA24 (4(6)) matrix was employed to optimize the conditions. The effect of six factors influencing the extraction efficiency was investigated: pH, salt, volume of donor and desorption phase, extraction and desorption time. The effect of each factor was estimated using individual contributions as response functions in the screening process. Analysis of variance was employed for estimating the main significant factors and their contributions in the extraction. Calibration curve plot displayed linearity over a range of 0.2-10 ng/mL with detection limits of 0.072 and 0.08 ng/mL for hair and aqueous samples, respectively. The relative recoveries in the hair and aqueous matrices ranged from 103-95%. The relative standard deviation for fiber-to-fiber repeatability was 3.9%.