Ionic liquid polymer functionalized carbon nanotubes-doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) for highly-efficient solid-phase microextraction of carbamate pesticides

• A Nafion modified PEDOT–PIL functionalized MWCNTs composite coating was fabricated.
• It showed high thermal stability and durability.
• It exhibited high extraction selectivity and capacity to carbamate pesticides.

A poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-ionic liquid polymer functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (PEDOT-PIL/MWCNTs) composite solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coating was fabricated by electrodeposition. After being dipped in Nafion solution, a Nafion-modified coating was obtained. The outer layer Nafion played a crucial role in enhancing the durability and stability of the coating, thus it was robust enough for replicated extraction for at least 150 times without decrease of extraction performance. The Nafion-modified coating exhibited much higher sensitivity than commercial coatings for the direct extraction of carbamate pesticides in aqueous solutions, due to its strong hydrophobic effect and π–π affinity based enrichment. When it was used for the determination of carbamate pesticides in combination with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection, good linearity (correlation coefficients higher than 0.9981), low limits of detection (15.2–27.2 ng/L) and satisfactory precision (relative standard deviation <8.2%, n = 5) were achieved. The developed method was applied to the analysis of four carbamate pesticides in apple and lettuce samples, and acceptable recoveries (i.e. 87.5–106.5%) were obtained for the standard addition.