Hydrothermally grown and self-assembled modified titanium and nickel oxide composite nanosheets on Nitinol-based fibers for efficient solid phase microextraction

- The TiO2/NiOCNSs was obtained by hydrothermal treatment of Nitinol wires.
- Unique TiO2/NiOCNSs have double-faced open access sites with large surface area.
- A novel TiO2/NiOCNSs-Ph fiber coating was achieved by SAM process.
- The fiber has high extraction capability and better selectivity for UV filters.
- The proposed method was applied to UV filters in environmental water samples.

A novel titanium and nickel oxide composite nanosheets (TiO2/NiOCNSs) coating was in situ grown on a Nitinol (NiTi) wire by direct hydrothermal treatment and modified by self-assembly of trichlorophenylsilane for solid phase microextraction (SPME). TiO2/NiOCNSs were radially oriented and chemically bonded to the NiTi substrate with double-faced open access sites. Moreover the phenyl modified TiO2/NiOCNSs (TiO2/NiOCNSs-Ph) coating exhibited original surface supporting framework favorable for effective SPME. The extraction performance of TiO2/NiOCNSs-Ph coated NiTi (NiTi-TiO2/NiOCNSs-Ph) fiber was investigated for the concentration and detection of ultraviolet (UV) filters, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalate acid esters and polychlorinated biphenyls coupled to HPLC with UV detection. The novel fiber exhibited better selectivity for UV filters and PAHs and presented greater extraction capability compared to commercial polydimethylsiloxane and polyacrylate fibers. Under the optimized conditions for SPME of UV filters, the proposed method presented linear ranges from 0.1 to 300 μg/L with correlation coefficients of higher than 0.999 and limits of detection from 0.030 μg/L to 0.064 μg/L. Relative standard deviations (RSDs) were below 7.16% and 8.42% for intra-day and inter-day measurements with the single fiber, respectively. Furthermore RSDs for fiber-to-fiber reproducibility from 6.57% to 8.93% were achieved. The NiTi-TiO2/NiOCNSs-Ph fiber can be used up to 200 times. The proposed method was successfully applied to the preconcentration and determination of trace target UV filters in different environmental water samples. The relative recoveries from 87.3% to 104% were obtained with RSDs less than 8.7%.