Sorptive extraction using polydimethylsiloxane/metal–organic framework coated stir bars coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental water samples

In this work, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs, Al-MIL-53-NH2) were synthesized via the hydrothermal method, and novel polydimethylsiloxane/metal–organic framework (PDMS/MOFs, PDMS/Al-MIL-53-NH2)-coated stir bars were prepared by the sol–gel technique. The preparation reproducibility of the PDMS/MOFs-coated stir bar was good, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranging from 4.8% to 14.9% (n = 7) within one batch and from 6.2% to 16.9% (n = 6) among different batches. Based on this fact, a new method of PDMS/MOFs-coated stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) and ultrasonic-assisted liquid desorption (UALD) coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) was developed for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental water samples. To obtain the best extraction performance for PAHs, several parameters affecting SBSE, such as extraction time, stirring rate, and extraction temperature, were investigated. Under optimal experimental conditions, wide linear ranges and good RSDs (n = 7) were obtained. With enrichment factors (EFs) of 16.1- to 88.9-fold (theoretical EF, 142-fold), the limits of detection (LODs, S/N = 3) of the developed method for the target PAHs were found to be in the range of 0.05–2.94 ng/L. The developed method was successfully applied to the analysis of PAHs in Yangtze River and East Lake water samples.