Stir bar sorptive extraction for the analysis of short-chain chlorinated paraffins in water

An optimised method using stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) and a thermal desorption-GC-electron capture detector (GC-ECD) for the determination of short-chain chlorinated paraffins from water samples was developed. Recoveries near to 100% were obtained by using 20 mm x 0.5 mm (length x film thickness) PDMS commercial stir bars from 200 mL spiked water samples and 20% methanol addition with an extraction period of 24 h. Method sensitivity, linearity and precision were evaluated for surface water and wastewater spiked samples. A LOD of 0.03 and 0.04 microg/L was calculated for surface and wastewater, respectively. The precision of the method given as an RSD was below 20% for both matrices. The developed method was applied for the analysis of two real samples from a contaminated river and a wastewater treatment plant. Results were in accordance with those obtained using a previously developed method based on solid phase microextraction (SPME).