Development of stir bar sorptive-dispersive microextraction mediated by magnetic nanoparticles and its analytical application to the determination of hydrophobic organic compounds in aqueous media

A novel microextraction technique combining the principles of stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) and dispersive micro-solid phase extraction (DμSPE) is presented. The main feature of the method is the use of a neodymium-core stirring bar physically coated with a hydrophobic magnetic nanosorbent. Depending on stirring speed, the magnetic sorbent either acts as a coating material to the stir bar, thus affording extraction alike SBSE, or as a dispersed nanosorbent medium for the collection and extraction of the target analytes, in close analogy to DμSPE. Once the stirring process is finished, the strong magnetic field of the stir bar prevails again and rapidly retrieves the dispersed MNPs. Alike SBSE, the stir bar is collected and the analytes are back-extracted by liquid desorption into an appropriate organic solvent, which is used for analysis. This enrichment technique is easy to prepare since it does not require special surface modification procedures, uses low volumes of non-toxic organic solvents and most importantly imbues SBSE with additional functionalities against a wide range of analytes (since nanosorbents with various coatings can be employed) while it affords additional merits to DμSPE in terms of extraction and post-extraction treatment. As proof-of-concept this new approach was applied to the determination of organic UV filters in seawater samples using oleic acid-coated cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4@oleic acid) magnetic nanoparticles as sorbent material. The method showed good analytical features in terms of linearity, enrichment factors (11-148), limits of detection (low ng mL−1), intra- and inter-day repeatability (RSD < 11%) and relative recoveries (87-120%).