Water stability of zeolite imidazolate framework 8 and application to porous membrane-protected micro-solid-phase extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from environmental water samples

Zeolite imidazolate framework 8 (ZIF-8) has permanent porosity, high surface area, hydrophobic property, open metal sites and remarkable water stability. These novel properties characterize the material as being different from other moisture sensitive metal–organic frameworks and endow ZIF-8 with the potential to extract trace analytes from environmental water samples. In the present study, ZIF-8 was synthesized and used as a sorbent for micro-solid-phase extraction of 6 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from environmental water samples for the first time. Parameters influencing the extraction efficiency such as desorption time, extraction time, desorption solvent and salt concentration were investigated. Environmental water samples collected from a local lake were processed using this novel μ-SPE procedure. ZIF-8 proved to be a very efficient extraction sorbent for the extraction of trace analytes from water samples. The limits of detection from gas chromatography–mass spectrometric analysis of PAHs were 0.002–0.012 ng/ml. The linear ranges were 0.1–50 or 0.5–50 ng/ml. The relative standard deviations for five replicates of the extractions were in the range of 2.1–8.5%.

► Zeolite imidazolate framework 8 (ZIF-8) as novel extraction sorbent is demonstrated.
► ZIF-8 is very stable when it is used in aqueous samples.
► ZIF-8 shows very good performance for PAH extraction from environmental water samples.