Multiwalled carbon nanotubes as a solid-phase extraction adsorbent for the determination of bisphenol A, 4-n-nonylphenol, and 4-tert-octylphenol

The adsorptive potential of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) for solid-phase extraction of bisphenol A, 4-n-nonylphenol, and 4-tert-octylphenol was investigated for the first time. The three analytes are quantitatively adsorbed on a MWNTs-packed cartridge, then the analytes retained on the cartridge are quantitatively desorbed with suitable amounts of methanol. Finally, the analytes in the methanol eluate are determined by high performance liquid chromatography-fluorometric detection. Parameters influencing the extraction efficiency, such as volume of the sample solutions, pH of the sample, and the eluent volume, were examined. Comparative studies showed that MWNTs were superior to C18 for the extraction of the more polar analyte bisphenol A and at least as effective as C18 for the extraction of 4-n-nonylphenol and 4-tert-octylphenol. Compared to XAD-2 copolymer, MWNTs exhibited a better property for the extraction of all three analytes. The developed method has been applied to determine bisphenol A, 4-n-nonylphenol, and 4-tert-octylphenol in several environmental water samples. The accuracy of the proposed method was tested by recovery measurements on spiked samples, and good recovery results (89.8-104.2%) were obtained. Detection limits of 0.083, 0.024, and 0.018 ng mL(-1) for bisphenol A, 4-n-nonylphenol, and 4-tert-octylphenol, respectively, were achieved under the optimized conditions.