Polyaniline-nylon-6 electrospun nanofibers for headspace adsorptive microextraction

A headspace adsorptive microextraction technique was developed using a novel polyaniline-nylon-6 (PANI-N6) nanofiber sheet, fabricated by electrospinning. The homogeneity and the porosity of the prepared PANI-N6 sheet were studied using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nanofibers diameters were found to be around 200 nm. The novel nanofiber sheet was examined as an extracting medium to isolate some selected chlorobenzenes (CBs), as model compounds, from aquatic media. The extracted analytes were desorbed using μL-amounts of solvent and eventually an aliquot of extractant was injected into gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Various parameters affecting the extraction and desorption processes were optimized. The developed method proved to be convenient and offers sufficient sensitivity and a good reproducibility. Limits of detection achieved for CBs with the developed analytical procedure ranged from 19 to 33 ng L−1, while limits of quantification were from 50 to 60 ng L−1. The relative standard deviations (RSD) at a concentration level of 0.1 ng mL−1 and 1 ng mL−1 were in the range of 8–14% and 5–11% (n = 3), respectively. The calibration curves of analytes were investigated in the range of 50–1000 ng L−1 and R2 between 0.9739 and 0.9932 were obtained. The developed method was successfully applied to the extraction of selected CBs from tap and river water samples. The relative recovery (RR) percentage obtained for the spiked real water samples at 0.1 ng mL−1 and 1 ng mL−1 level were 93–103% and 95–104%, respectively. The whole procedure showed to be conveniently applicable and quite easy to handle.

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► Polyaniline–polyamide nanofiber mat was fabricated by electrospinning technology.
► Electrospun nanofiber was used for extraction of chlorobenzenes from aquatic media.
► A method based on headspace adsorptive microextraction and GC–MS was developed.