Magnetic N-doped carbon nanotubes: A versatile and efficient material for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental water samples

• New efficient and versatile method for the determination of PAH in water using magnetic N-doped carbon nanotubes (CNT).
• The CNT can be easily dispersed in any aqueous matrix at same time show high efficiency for the adsorption of PAH.
• Determination by chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS).
• The method is more efficient than the use of SPME with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber.
• The method was applied to the analysis of PAH in four lake water samples collected in Brazil.

This paper describes a new, efficient and versatile method for the sampling and preconcentration of PAH in environmental water matrices using special hybrid magnetic carbon nanotubes. These N-doped amphiphilic CNT can be easily dispersed in any aqueous matrix due to the N containing hydrophilic part and at the same time show high efficiency for the adsorption of different PAH contaminants due to the very hydrophobic surface. After adsorption, the CNT can be easily removed from the medium by a simple magnetic separation. GC/MS analyses showed that the CNT method is more efficient than the use of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with much lower solvent consumption, technical simplicity and time, showing good linearity (range 0.18–80.00 μg L−1) and determination coefficient (R2 > 0.9810). The limit of detection ranged from 0.05 to 0.42 μg L−1 with limit of quantification from 0.18 to 1.40 μg L−1. Recovery (n = 9) ranged from 80.50 ± 10 to 105.40 ± 12%. Intraday precision (RSD, n = 9) ranged from 1.91 to 9.01%, whereas inter day precision (RSD, n = 9) ranged from 7.02 to 17.94%. The method was applied to the analyses of PAH in four lake water samples collected in Belo Horizonte City, Brazil.

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