Cobalt oxide nanoparticles as a novel high-efficiency fiber coating for solid phase microextraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene from aqueous solutions

• Co3O4 nanoparticles were introduced as a novel SPME fiber coating.
• The fiber was evaluated for the extraction of BTEX in combination with GC–MS.
• The fiber showed extraction efficiencies better than a PDMS fiber toward BTEX.
• The fiber was successfully applied to the determination of BTEX in real samples.

In this work cobalt oxide nanoparticles were introduced for preparation of a novel solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber coating. Chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique was used in order for synthesis and immobilization of the Co3O4 nanomaterials on a Pt wire for fabrication of SPME fiber. The prepared cobalt oxide coating was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The fiber was evaluated for the extraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) in combination with GC–MS. A simplex optimization method was used to optimize the factors affecting the extraction efficiency. Under optimized conditions, the proposed fiber showed extraction efficiencies comparable to those of a commercial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber toward the BTEX compounds. The repeatability of the fiber and its reproducibility, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD), were lower than about 11%. No significant change was observed in the extraction efficiency of the new SPME fiber after over 50 extractions. The fiber was successfully applied to the determination of BTEX compounds in real samples. The proposed nanostructure cobalt oxide fiber is a promising alternative to the commercial fibers as it is robust, inexpensive and easily prepared.

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