Suitability of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for the in situ silylation of chlorophenols in water samples before gas chromatography with mass spectrometry

Trace analysis of chlorophenols in water was performed by simultaneous silylation and dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction was carried out using an organic solvent lighter than water (n-hexane). The effect of different silylating reagents on the method efficiency was investigated. The influence of derivatization reagent volume, presence of catalyst and derivatization/extraction time on the yield of the derivatization reaction was studied. Different parameters affecting extraction efficiency such as kind and volume of extraction and disperser solvents, pH of the sample and addition of salt were also investigated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graphs were linear in the range of 0.05-100 ng/mL and the limit of detection was 0.01 ng/mL. The enrichment factors were 242, 351, and 363 for 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, respectively. The values of intra-and inter-day relative standard deviations were in the range of 3.0-6.4 and 6.1-9.9%, respectively. The applicability of the method was investigated by analyzing water and wastewater samples.