New medium-to-high polarity twister coatings for liquid and vapour phase sorptive extraction of matrices of vegetable origin

Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction (SBSE) is a solventless sampling technique first introduced to extract organic analytes from aqueous samples, in the following applied to headspace sampling (HeadSpace Sorptive Extraction – HSSE). In SBSE and HSSE, analytes are sorbed onto a thick film of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coating a glass-coated magnet. However, PDMS is apolar and not highly effective in recovering polar analytes (i.e. with log Ko/w below 2), making difficult their sampling in complex matrices. A new generation of medium-to-high polarity polymeric coatings for twisters i.e. polyethyleneglycol-modified silicone (EG) and polyacrylate/polyethyleneglycol (PA) has recently been introduced to overcome this limit. In this study, EG and PA twisters have been applied to SBSE and HSSE of a number of dedicated standard mixtures and real-world samples of vegetable origin to evaluate their capability to increase recovery of medium to highly polar analytes. The results obtained, expressed as percent concentration factor (CF%) versus PDMS twisters taken as reference, showed that analyte log Ko/w is a key-factor driving the choice of the most effective coating. The new twisters showed to be successful for both SBSE and HSSE, although to a different extent. EG twisters gave high recoveries with analytes over a wide range of polarities and in particular with log Ko/w below 2 and/or containing hydroxyl or carboxylic functional groups independently on their log Ko/w. On the other hand, PA twisters were selectively effective for highly polar compounds with log Ko/w below 1.

► Two new polar twisters for SBSE and HSSE to sample polar compounds were tested.
► EG performance is strictly related to analyte log Ko/w.
► Recovery is also increased for compounds with hydroxyl or carboxylic groups.
► The new coatings gave higher recoveries than conventional PDMS for polar compounds.