Mesoporous silica hybridized by ordered mesoporous carbon for in-tube solid-phase microextraction

To enhance the extraction performance, a mesoporous silica was modified with ordered mesoporous carbon for solid-phase microextraction. Three stainless-steel wires coated with the mesoporous material were placed in a polyetheretherketone tube for getting an extraction tube. The tube was coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector, and the online analysis system was constructed. Then its extraction performance was evaluated using hydrophobic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, and hydrophilic neonicotinoids. The best selectivity was presented for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Several main conditions were optimized such as sampling volume, sampling rate, methanol concentration in the sample, and desorption time, a rapid and sensitive analytical method was established toward polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The analytical method exhibited wide linear range from 0.017 to 15 µg/L with acceptable correlation coefficients more than 0.9990, limits of detection in 0.005-0.020 µg/L, limits of quantification ranging from 0.017 to 0.066 µg/L as well as large enrichment factors of 377-2314. It was successfully applied to detect trace polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in some real water samples including tap water, snow water, and domestic sewage.