On-site polymer-coated hollow fiber membrane microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry of polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers

Porous polypropylene hollow fiber membrane coated with a conjugated polymer was used as an on-site sampling device for the extraction of polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated biphenyl ethers from coastal sea water samples. The coated hollow fiber membrane was placed in a vial containing the sample, and the target compounds extracted via manual shaking of the vials at the site of sample collection. For each extraction, two fibers were used. After extraction, the fibers with the adsorbed analytes were brought back to the laboratory for further processing. Care was taken to preserve the integrity of the analytes and to avoid contamination during transport; after extraction, the fibers were carefully removed and placed in air-tight crimper vials which were stored in an ice-box. The analytes were desorbed by solvent in the laboratory and analyses were carried out using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. This method was highly reproducible with relative standard deviations in the range of 1–9%. Recoveries from spiked water samples ranged from 83% to 98%. Low limits of detections between 0.04 and 0.21 ng l−1 were achieved. The extraction efficiency was compared with solid-phase microextraction.