Gas purge-microsyringe extraction: A rapid and exhaustive direct microextraction technique of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from plants

•We establish the theoretical system of GP-MSE which is a novel microextraction.•The article elaborates on extraction kinetic and main parameters of GP-MSE.•Direct extraction of PAHs from plant samples is completed and fast (within 6 min).•The results provide a theoretical guide in the real application of GP-MSE.

Gas purge-microsyringe extraction (GP-MSE) is a rapid and exhaustive microextraction technique for volatile and semivolatile compounds. In this study, a theoretical system of GP-MSE was established by directly extracting and analyzing 16 kinds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from plant samples. On the basis of theoretical consideration, a full factorial experimental design was first used to evaluate the main effects and interactions of the experimental parameters affecting the extraction efficiency. Further experiments were carried out to determine the extraction kinetics and desorption temperature-dependent. The results indicated that three factors, namely desorption temperature (temperature of sample phase) Td, extraction time t, and gas flow rate u, had a significantly positive effect on the extraction efficiency of GP-MSE for PAHs. Extraction processes of PAHs in plant samples followed by first-order kinetics (relative coefficient R2 of simulation curves were 0.731–1.000, with an average of 0.958 and 4.06% relative standard deviation), and obviously depended on the desorption temperature. Furthermore, the effect of the matrix was determined from the difference in Eapp,d. Finally, satisfactory recoveries of 16 PAHs were obtained using optimal parameters. The study demonstrated that GP-MSE could provide a rapid and exhaustive means of direct extraction of PAHs from plant samples. The extraction kinetics were similar that of the inverse process of the desorption kinetics of the sample phase.

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