In situ fabrication of nanostructured titania coating on the surface of titanium wire: A new approach for preparation of solid-phase microextraction fiber

Nanostructured titania-based solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers were fabricated through the in situ oxidation of titanium wires with H2O2 (30%, w/w) at 80 °C for 24 h. The obtained SPME fibers possess a ∼1.2 μm thick nanostructured coating consisting of ∼100 nm titania walls and 100–200 nm pores. The use of these fibers for headspace SPME coupled with gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC–ECD) resulted in improved analysis of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its degradation products. The presented method to detect DDT and its degradation products has high sensitivity (0.20–0.98 ng L−1), high precision (relative standard deviation R.S.D. = 9.4–16%, n = 5), a wide linear range (5–5000 ng L−1), and good linearity (coefficient of estimation R2 = 0.991–0.998). As the nanostructured titania was in situ formed on the surface of a titanium wire, the coating was uniformly and strongly adhered on the titanium wire. Because of the inherent chemical stability of the titania coating and the mechanical durability of the titanium wire substrate, this new SPME fiber exhibited long life span (over 150 times).