Hydrophobic coating of polyaniline-poly(propylene oxide) copolymer for direct immersion solid phase microextraction of carbamate pesticides

• A novel hydrophobic PANI-PPO coating was prepared by electrochemical method.
• Acidic ionic liquid was used in the preparation of PANI-PPO coating.
• The coating showed netlike structure.
• It had high extraction capability toward carbamate pesticides.

A nanostructural polyaniline-poly(propylene oxide) (PANI-PPO) composite coating was electrochemically synthesized on a stainless steel wire, by using acidic ionic liquid 1-sulfobutyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrosulfate as supporting electrolyte. The coating showed strong hydrophobicity and allowed for the direct immersion solid-phase microextraction of carbamate pesticides (i.e. 2-(1-methylethoxy) phenyl methylcarbamate, m-tolyl-n-methylcarbamate, 2-(1-methylethyl) phenyl methylcarbamate, 2-(1-methylpropyl) phenol methylcarbamate and 2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl methylcarbamate) in complex matrices. Moreover, this coating could be used for at least 120 times of extraction. When it was coupled with gas chromatography for the determination of these carbamate pesticides the linear ranges were about 0.1–100 μg L−1 and the detection limits were 0.012–0.048 μg L−1. It also displayed acceptable repeatability and reproducibility. When a fiber was used for five successive measurements the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were smaller than 8.7%, and the RSDs for fiber-to-fiber were 5.7–12.9% (n = 5). The practical feasibility of the proposed method was evaluated by determining carbamate pesticides in vegetable samples and the recoveries for standards added were 79.8–108.8%.