Development and application of a new solid-phase microextraction fiber by sol–gel technology on titanium wire

Novel solid-phase microextraction fibers were prepared based on sol–gel technique. Commonly used fused silica substrate was replaced by titanium wire which provided high strength and longer fiber life cycle. Titanium isopropoxide was employed as the precursor which provides a sol solution containing Ti–OH groups and shows more tendencies to the molecularly similar group on the substrate. Three different polymers, poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), poly(ethylenepropyleneglycol)-monobutyl ether (Ucon) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) were employed as coating polymer in preparing three different fibers. The applicability of these fibers was assessed for the headspace SPME (HS-SPME) of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX) from water sample followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Effects of different parameters such as fiber coating type, extraction condition, desorption condition were investigated and optimized. Under the optimized conditions, LODs and LOQs of 0.75–10 μg L−1 (S/N = 3) and 1–20 μg L−1 (S/N = 10) were respectively obtained. The method showed linearity in the range of 10–25,000 μg L−1 with correlation coefficient of >0.99. The relative standard deviation was less than 8%.

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► Novel solid-phase microextraction fibers were prepared.
► Sol–gel technique was used for making fibers.
► Sol–gel was coated on the titanium wire substrate.
► The new fibers are robust, unbreakable with temperature and solvent stability.
► The fibers were used for extraction of BTEXs from aqueous samples.