Novel coatings for stir bar sorptive extraction to determine pharmaceuticals and personal care products in environmental waters by liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry

• Three commercial coatings for SBSE to extract PPCPs in wastewaters were tested.
• EG Silicone coating provided better recoveries than PA and PDMS ones for PPCPs.
• SBSE (EG Silicone Twister®)/LC–MS/MS method was validated with low detection limits.
• A group of pharmaceuticals and personal care products were detected in wastewaters.

Two new commercially available polar coatings for stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), consisting of polyacrylate (PA) with a proportion of polyethyleneglycol (PEG) (Acrylate Twister®) and PEG modified silicone (EG Silicone Twister®), were evaluated and compared with the classic coating based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS Twister®) for the extraction of a group of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) from wastewater samples.The SBSE parameters, such as sample pH, agitation speed, extraction temperature, extraction time, desorption solvent and time, were optimised in order to achieve suitable sorption of the target analytes. The EG Silicone coating enabled more efficient extraction of some polar compounds as well as improving the sorption of apolar compounds, in comparison with the other two coatings.Finally, the method of SBSE followed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) using the EG Silicone coating was validated achieving good linearity (r2 > 0.994, except for CBZ (r2 > 0.989)), precision (%RSD < 17%) and low limits of quantification (LOQs) (20–40 ng L−1). The SBSE/LC–MS/MS methodology was applied for the determination of PPCPs in wastewater samples.

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