An ionic liquid (IL) in situ preconcentration method was optimized and applied to the monitoring of the 15 + 1 European Union polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water and fruit-tea infusions. The optimized method utilizes 10 mL of water (or infusion) containing 38 μL of the IL 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and a content of 36.1 g/L NaCl, which are mixed with Li-NTf2 (340 μL, 0.2 g/mL), followed by vortex (4 min) and centrifugation (5 min). The obtained microdroplet containing hydrocarbons is diluted with acetonitrile and injected into an HPLC with UV/Vis and fluorescence detection. The method presented average enrichment factors of 127 for water (tap water and bottled water) and 27 for two fruit-tea infusions; with average relative recoveries of 86.7 and 106% for water and fruit-tea infusions, respectively. The method was sensitive, with detection limits ranging from 0.001 to 0.050 ng/mL in water, and from 0.010 to 0.600 ng/mL in fruit-tea infusions, for the fluorescent hydrocarbons. Real extraction efficiencies ranged from 12.7 to 58.7% for water, and from 20.2 to 117% for the infusions. The method was also fast (~12 min) and free of organic solvents in the extraction step.
Keywords: Fluorescence detection; HPLC; Ionic liquids; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Preconcentration methods.
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