Polypyrrole-montmorillonite nanocomposite as sorbent for solid-phase microextraction of phenolic compounds in water

A fiber-coated polypyrrole-montmorillonite nanocomposite was prepared for solid-phase microextraction. The fiber coating can be prepared easily; it is mechanically stable and exhibits relatively high thermal stability. The prepared fiber was evaluated for the extraction of some phenolic compounds from aqueous sample solutions by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The effects of the extraction and desorption parameters including extraction time, extraction temperature, stirring rate, ionic strength, pH and desorption temperature and time have been studied. At optimum conditions, the repeatability for one fiber (n = 5), expressed as % relative standard deviation was between 6.5 and 7.8% for the phenolic compounds. The detection limits for the studied phenolic compounds were between 0.05-1.3 ng/mL. The developed method offers the advantage of being simple to use, with shorter analysis time, lower cost, thermal stability of the fibers, and high relative recovery in comparison to conventional methods of analysis.