Knitting aromatic polymers for efficient solid-phase microextraction of trace organic pollutants

• The preparation and characterization of the high-performance KAPs-coated SPME coatings were reported in this work.
• The self-made coatings exhibited excellent extraction performance to BTEX and PAHs.
• The analytical performance of the proposed methods for the analysis of BTEX and PAHs was proven quite satisfactory.
• The self-made polymer coatings were applied to the detection of BTEX and PAHs in environmental water samples.

A series of knitting aromatic polymers (KAPs) were successfully synthesized using a simple one-step Friedel-Crafts alkylation of aromatic monomers and were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Then, as-synthesized KAPs with large surface areas, unique pore structures and high thermal stability were prepared as solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coatings that exhibited good extraction abilities for a series of benzene compounds (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and m-xylene, which are referred to as BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Under the optimized conditions, the methodologies established for the determination of BTEX and PAHs using the KAPs-triPB and KAPs-B coatings, respectively, possessed wide linear ranges, low limits of detection (LODs, 0.10–1.13 ng L−1 for BTEX and 0.05–0.49 ng L−1 for PAHs) and good reproducibility. Finally, the proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of BTEX and PAHs in environmental water samples, and satisfactory recoveries (93.6–124.2% for BTEX and 77.2–113.3% for PAHs) were achieved. This study provides a benchmark for exploiting novel microporous organic polymers (MOPs) for SPME applications.