Hollow fiber-based liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) as a new approach for the HPLC determination of fluoroquinolones in biological and environmental matrices

In this paper, a three phase hollow fiber-based liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) combined with a HPLC procedure using diode array (DAD) and fluorescence detection (FLD) has been developed for the determination of eight widely used fluoroquinolones: marbofloxacin (MRB), norfloxacin (NRF), ciprofloxacin (CPR), danofloxacin (DNF), enrofloxacin (ENR), gatifloxacin (GTF), grepafloxacin (GRP) and flumequine (FLM). A Q3/2 Accurel PP polypropylene hollow fiber supporting 1-octanol was used between a 2 M Na2SO4 aqueous solution (pH 7) as donor phase and aqueous solution (pH 12) as acceptor phase. The microextraction parameters were optimised from an experimental central composite design. The procedure allows very low detection and quantitation limits of 0.3–16 ng L−1 and 1–50 ng L−1, respectively. The proposed method was applied to the determination of the analytes in bovine urine and in environmental water samples (surface, tap and wastewater).