Conductive polymer-based microextraction methods: a review.

Conductive polymers (CPs) are classified as materials which exhibit highly reversible redox behavior and the unusual combined properties of metal and plastics. CPs, due to their multifunctionality, ease of synthesis and their stability, have attracted more attentions in different fields of research, including sample preparation. CPs along with several commercial hydrophilic sorbents, are alternative to the commercially available hydrophobic sorbents which despite their high specific surface areas, have poor interactions and retentions in the extraction of polar compounds. This review covers a general overview regarding the recent progress and new applications of CPs toward their synthesis and use in novel extraction and microextraction techniques including solid phase microextraction (SPME), electrochemically controlled solid-phase microextraction (EC-SPME) and other relevant techniques. Furthermore the contribution of nano-structured CPs in these methodologies is also reviewed.

Membrane protected conductive polymer as micro-SPE device for the determination of triazine herbicides in aquatic media.

A micro-SPE technique was developed by fabricating a rather small package including a polypropylene membrane shield containing the appropriate sorbent. The package was used for the extraction of some triazine herbicides from aqueous samples. Solvent desorption was subsequently performed in a microvial and an aliquot of extractant was injected into GC-MS. Various sorbents including aniline-ortho-phenylene diamine copolymer, newly synthesized, polypyrrole, multiwall carbon nanotube, C18 and charcoal were examined as extracting media. Among them, conductive polymers exhibited better performance. Influential parameters including extraction and desorption time, desorption solvent and the ionic strength were optimized. The developed method proved to be rather convenient and offers sufficient sensitivity and good reproducibility. The detection limits of the method under optimized conditions were in the range of 0.01-0.04 ng/mL. The RSDs at a concentration level of 0.1 ng/mL were obtained between 4.5 and 9.3% (n=5). The calibration curves of analytes showed linearity in the range of 0.05-10 ng/mL. The developed method was successfully applied to the extraction of selected triazines from real water samples. The whole procedure showed to be conveniently applicable and quite easy to manipulate.

Immersed single-drop microextraction-electrothermal vaporization atomic absorption spectroscopy for the trace determination of mercury in water samples.

A new method based on single-drop microextraction (SDME) combined with electrothermal vaporization atomic absorption spectroscopy (ETV-AAS) was developed for the trace determination of mercury in water samples. A microdrop of m-xylene was applied as the extraction solvent. After extraction, the microdrop was introduced, directly, into a graphite furnace of AAS. Some important extraction parameters such as type of solvent, volume of solvent, sample stirring, ionic strength, sample pH, chelating agent concentration, sample temperature, and extraction time were investigated and optimized. The highest possible microdrop volume of 10 microL, a sampling temperature of 27 degrees C, and use of m-xylene containing dithizone, as complexing agent, are major parameters led to achieve a high enrichment factor of 970. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limit of the method was 0.01 microg L(-1) and the relative standard deviation was 6.1% (n=7). The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of Hg in two river water samples. The effects of interfering species such as Pt, Pd, Cu, Au, and Bi, having the tendency to form complexes with dithizone, at two concentration levels of 100 and 1000 microg L(-1) were also studied.