Needle-type extraction device for the purge and trap analysis of 23 volatile organic compounds in tap water

•A purge-and-trap method was developed using a novel extraction needle.•The needle has multi-bed-type sorbent for extraction of VOCs in water sample.•The sampling time of the method was approximately 9 min.•The method was successfully applied for the analysis of real tap water samples.

We developed a rapid determination technique for trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in tap water by introducing a novel needle-type extraction device coupled to a purge-and-trap method. To extract a wide range of VOCs, a new extraction needle containing particles of divinylbenzene and activated carbon was developed in this study. During the active sampling of the headspace gas in a glass vial by the extraction needle, pure N2 gas was used for purging the aqueous sample. After the optimization of several experimental parameters, such as the addition of the salt and conditions of dry purging and desorption, the extraction performance of the device and method was evaluated for 23 VOCs that are typically found in tap water samples. The quantification limits of the method were 0.6 μg/L for 1,1-dichloroethylene and less than 0.5 μg/L for other VOCs, with good repeatability being confirmed for all the target compounds. Taking advantage of the excellent recovery of VOCs, the determination of VOCs in real tap water samples was carried out successfully. Because the developed method does not require sample heating and/or cryogenic focusing, simple and rapid analyses can be performed along with satisfactory sensitivity for typical tap water samples.