Hollow fiber-mediated liquid-phase microextraction of chemical warfare agents from water

Unambiguous detection and identification of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and related compounds are of paramount importance from verification point of view of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). It requires development of fast, reliable, simple and reproducible sample preparation of CWAs from water which is likely to be contaminated during deliberate or inadvertent spread of CWAs. This work describes development of hollow fiber liquid-phase microextraction (HF-LPME) method for efficient extraction of CWAs (such as sarin, sulfur mustard and their analogues) from water followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometric analysis. Extraction parameters, such as organic solvent, agitation, extraction time, and salt concentration were optimized. Best recoveries of target analytes were achieved using 1 μL trichloroethylene as extracting solvent, 1000 rpm stirring rate, 15 min extraction time, and 30% NaCl. Excellent precision was observed with less than 7.6% RSD. The limit of detection by HF-LPME was achieved up to 0.1 μg/L at 30% salt concentration.