Application of polyethyleneimine-modified attapulgite for the solid-phase extraction of chlorophenols at trace levels...

A polyethyleneimine (PEI)-modified attapulgite was employed as a new adsorbent for solid-phase extraction (SPE) of chlorophenols (CPs) from environmental water samples. Key factors pivotal to extraction efficiency, such as organic additive, pH, salt, sample loading volume, elution volume, and sample loading flow rate, were investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity of CPs reached 38 mg/g, and the adsorption behavior could be described with the Langmuir isotherm model. The developed SPE procedure was then tested on river water samples. Of this cartridge, 0.4 g could be used to treat up to 100 mL of the water sample, with high recoveries achieved. The limit of detection (S/N = 3) and the limit of quantification (S/N = 10) were in range of 0.08-0.56 and 0.27-1.88 ng/mL, respectively. The mean recoveries of CPs spiked in river water samples ranged from 84.4 to 96.8% with relative standard deviations for the intra-day and inter-day less than 6.30%. The developed SPE method exhibited high sensitivity, high selectivity, excellent accuracy, and good repeatability to the analysis of trace CPs in complicated aqueous matrices. Graphical abstract Graphical abstract contains poor quality and small text inside the artwork. Please do not re-use the file that we have rejected or attempt to increase its resolution and re-save. It is originally poor, therefore, increasing the resolution will not solve the quality problem. We suggest that you provide us the original format. We prefer replacement figures containing vector/editable objects rather than embedded images. Preferred file formats are eps, ai, tiff and pdf.The separated figures were attached, which named Graphical abstract. ᅟ.