Development of a screening method for the analysis of organic pollutants in water using dual stir bar sorptive extraction-thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

► A novel method is presented for fast screening of organic pollutants from aqueous matrixes using dual stir bar sorptive extraction coupled to thermal desorption and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. ► The method optimisation was performed using 45 environmentally harmful substances with different volatilities (boiling point from 193 to 495 °C), polarity (log Kow from 2.17 to 8.54) and acido-basic properties. ► SBSE extraction of some compounds has been published, but the selection included also some new compounds.