Copper ferrite nanoparticles as novel coating appropriated to solid-phase microextraction of phthalate esters from aqueous matrices

The prepared CuFe2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) resulting from a facile citrate–nitrate combustion method were adhesived on stainless steel wire with epoxy glue as a novel fiber coating. A direct immersion solid-phase microextraction (DI-SPME) method based on the prepared coating was established through sensitively detecting four phthalate esters (PAEs) from aqueous media with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID). The effects of various parameters on the efficiency of SPME process such as extraction time, extraction temperature, pH, ionic strength, desorption time, and desorption temperature were studied. Under optimized conditions, the limit of detections (LODs) and quantifications (LOQs) for the phthalate esters varied in the range of 0.12–0.40 μg·L−1 and 0.40–1.33 μg·L−1, respectively. The inter-day and intra-day relative standard deviations for these varied phthalate esters at 10 μg·L−1 concentration level (n = 6) using a single fiber were 3.9–12.4% and 6.6–15.1%, respectively. The fiber to fiber repeatabilities (n = 3), expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD%), were between 9.9% and 16.5% at 10 μg·L−1 concentration levell, and the the linear ranges varied between 1 and 500 μg·L−1. The prepared fiber can be repeatedly used to exceed 80 times, revealing a long lifetime and good stability. The method was successfully applied to analysis of the mineral water samples with recoveries from 81.1 to 103.7%. This work also provided an interesting insight for stable SPME fiber prepared by spinel materials for efficient extraction of PAEs.