Background:
This work reports a green analytical method for the determination of organic
environmental pollutants using nano-liquid chromatography with a self-made column for rapid, sensitive,
inexpensive and efficient analysis of BTX pollutants in water. The applications of monolithic nanoscale
columns for quantitative analysis of environmental real samples are very limited in the literature.
Methods:
A capillary column containing a composite of multi-walled carbon nanotubes incorporated
into a lauryl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate porous monolithic polymer was fabricated for
the determination of BTX pollutants in real water samples.
Results:
Baseline separation was accomplished at 0.4 µL/min flow rate with UV-detection set at 208
nm. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration curves were validated over the range of 1.0-500
µg/L with R2 more than 0.9992. The detection limits of benzene, toluene, o-xylene and m/p-xylene
were 0.25, 0.05, 0.075 and 0.05 µg/L, respectively. After a simple extraction process with a theoretical
preconcentration factor equal to 200, the recovery values in Milli-Q, tap and sea water samples were
found to be ranged from 84.85 to 97.84% with %RSD less than 7.5. Furthermore, we reported a comparison
between our prepared composite column with a commercial C18 silica based column which is
the most used in such analytical field. Each column demonstrated its advantages from different analytical
aspects.
Conclusion:
The application of monolithic columns and nano-scale LC for routine analysis of environmental
samples is very promising as the use of monolithic capillary columns offers several advantages
over conventional scale particulate packed columns.
New Silica Gel-Based Monolithic Column for Nano-Liquid Chromatography, used in the HILIC Mode
