Thermally stable ionic liquid-based sol-gel coating for ultrasonic extraction-solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography determination of phthalate esters in agricultural plastic films.

A novel sol-gel-coated ionic liquid-based ([AMIM][N(SO(2)CF(3))(2)]-OH-TSO) fiber was successfully applied for the determination of phthalate esters (PAEs) in agricultural plastic films by ultrasonic extraction (UE) combined with solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography (SPME-GC) due to its high thermal stability, specific selectivity and extraction efficiency. The extractant for UE and the adsorption time for SPME were optimized to achieve higher extraction efficiency. The desorption temperature and time were also optimized to avoid the carryover effect of previous extraction, and ultimately improve the precision and accuracy of the method. The [AMIM][N(SO(2)CF(3))(2)]-OH-TSO fiber showed comparable, or even higher response to most of the investigated PAEs than the commercial PDMS, PDMS-DVB and PA fibers. The carryover problem, often encountered when using commercial fibers, had been eliminated when desorption was performed at 360°C for 8 min. The proposed SPME-GC method showed good linearity over three to four orders of magnitude, and low limits of detection ranged from 0.003 to 0.063 µg L(-1). The relative standard deviation values obtained were below 10%, and the recoveries were in the ranges of 90.2-111.4%. Some of the PAEs studied were detected at very high concentration in these agricultural plastic film samples, resulting in a potential risk of crop damage, environmental contamination and human health exposure.

Preparation and characterization of novel crown ether functionalized ionic liquid-based solid-phase microextraction coatings by sol-gel technology.

A novel crown ether functionalized ionic liquid (IL), 1-allyl-3-(6'-oxo-benzo-15-crown-5 hexyl) imidazolium hexafluorophosphate was synthesized and used as selective stationary phase to prepare task-specific IL-based solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers by sol-gel method and free radical cross-linking technology. The underlying mechanism of the sol-gel reaction was proposed and the successful chemical bonding of the crown ether functionalized IL to the formed hybrid organic-inorganic copolymer coating was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. The performance of this in situ created crown ether functionalized IL-based SPME fibers, was investigated in detail. The coating has porous surface structure, stable performance in high temperature (to 340 °C) and in different solutions (water, organic solvent, acid and alkali), and good coating preparation reproducibility. In contrast to the sol-gel derived 1-allyl-3-methyl imidazolium hexafluorophosphate-based coating prepared in our previous work with the identical procedure, the extraction performance of this newly developed sol-gel crown ether functionalized IL-based coating was superior for alcohols, phthalate esters, phenolic environmental estrogens, fatty acids and aromatic amines due to the introduction of benzo-15-crown-5 functional group in IL structure. Moreover, it was shown to provide higher or comparable extraction efficiencies for most analytes studied than did the commercial PDMS, PDMS/DVB and PA fibers.