Solid-phase extraction-capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for the determination of tetracyclines residues in surface water by using carbon nanotubes as sorbent material

Last years chemical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted high interest. One of the most important issues is the capability of CNTs to adsorb analytes on its surface. In this work, such property has been used to preconcentrate trace tetracyclines from environmental water samples at the trace level. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have showed higher capacity than other two single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Preconcentration of the samples was performed in a flow system at-line coupled to the CE-MS equipment. The preconcentration of tetracyclines on MWNTs followed by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry allows the detection of 0.30–0.69 μg/L of tetracyclines for the analysis of 10 mL of samples. Recoveries for the analysis of spiked samples ranged from 98.6 to 103.2% and the precision from 5.4 to 8.2%. Separation of tetracylines in the electrophoretic system was achieved using 50 mM formic acid at pH 2.0 as a background electrolyte. Atmospheric pressure electrospray ionization mass spectrometry detection was accomplished using 50:50 (v/v) methanol/water containing 0.5% (v/v) formic acid as a sheath liquid.