Zirconia coated stir bar sorptive extraction combined with large volume sample stacking capillary electrophoresis-indirect ultraviolet detection for the determination of chemical warfare agent degradation products in water samples

In this study, a sensitive, selective and reliable analytical method by combining zirconia (ZrO2) coated stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) with large volume sample stacking capillary electrophoresis-indirect ultraviolet (LVSS-CE/indirect UV) was developed for the direct analysis of chemical warfare agent degradation products of alkyl alkylphosphonic acids (AAPAs) (including ethyl methylphosphonic acid (EMPA) and pinacolyl methylphosphonate (PMPA)) and methylphosphonic acid (MPA) in environmental waters. ZrO2 coated stir bar was prepared by adhering nanometer-sized ZrO2 particles onto the surface of stir bar with commercial PDMS sol as adhesion agent. Due to the high affinity of ZrO2 to the electronegative phosphonate group, ZrO2 coated stir bars could selectively extract the strongly polar AAPAs and MPA. After systematically optimizing the extraction conditions of ZrO2-SBSE, the analytical performance of ZrO2-SBSE-CE/indirect UV and ZrO2-SBSE-LVSS-CE/indirect UV was assessed. The limits of detection (LODs, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3) obtained by ZrO2-SBSE-CE/indirect UV were 13.4–15.9 μg/L for PMPA, EMPA and MPA. The relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 7, c = 200 μg/L) of the corrected peak area for the target analytes were in the range of 6.4–8.8%. Enhancement factors (EFs) in terms of LODs were found to be from 112- to 145-fold. By combining ZrO2 coating SBSE with LVSS as a dual preconcentration strategy, the EFs were magnified up to 1583-fold, and the LODs of ZrO2-SBSE-LVSS-CE/indirect UV were 1.4, 1.2 and 3.1 μg/L for PMPA, EMPA, and MPA, respectively. The RSDs (n = 7, c = 20 μg/L) were found to be in the range of 9.0–11.8%. The developed ZrO2-SBSE-LVSS-CE/indirect UV method has been successfully applied to the analysis of PMPA, EMPA, and MPA in different environmental water samples, and the recoveries for the spiked water samples were found to be in the range of 93.8–105.3%.

► The ZrO2 coated stir bar is easy to prepare.
► The ZrO2 coated stir bar has excellent pH stability, organic solvent resistance.
► The ZrO2 coated stir bar can selectively extract high polar alkylphosphonic acids.
► ZrO2-SBSE-LVSS-CE/indirect UV was developed for AAPAs and MPA analysis in waters.
► The developed method is sensitive, selective, accurate and low-cost.