Vinyl crown ether as a novel radical crosslinked sol–gel SPME fiber for determination of organophosphorus pesticides in food samples

A method based on solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography flame photometric detector for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) in food samples was described. Three kinds of vinyl crown ether polar fibers were prepared with sol–gel process and used for the analytes. The new coatings showed higher extraction efficiency and sensitivity for organophosphorus pesticides compared with commercial fibers—85 μm PA and 65 μm PDMS-DVB. Specifically, the benzo-15-crown-5 coating was the most effective for the target analytes. Several factors affecting the performance of SPME such as extraction temperature and time, salt addition, and dilution ratios of samples were optimized. The apparent recoveries of spiked food samples (apple juice, apple and tomato) were determined to be over 55.3% and the limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.003–0.09 ng/g for the OPP studied. The method was applied to determine the concentrations of OPP in real food samples.