Analysis of aromatic amines in water samples by liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction with hollow fibers and high-performance liquid chromatography.

Liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction (LLLME) with hollow fibers in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been applied as a rapid and sensitive quantitative method for the detection of four aromatic amines (3-nitroaniline, 4-chloroaniline, 4-bromoaniline and 3,4-dichloroaniline) in environmental water samples. The preconcentration procedure was induced by the pH difference inside and outside the hollow fiber. The target compounds were extracted from 4-ml aqueous sample (donor solution, pH approximately 13) through a microfilm of organic solvent (di-n-hexyl ether), immobilized in the pores of a hollow fiber (1.5 cm length x 0.6 mm I.D.), and finally into 4 microl of acid acceptor solution inside the fiber. After a prescribed period of time, the acceptor solution inside the fiber was withdrawn into the microsyringe and directly injected into the HPLC system for analysis. Factors relevant to the extraction procedure were studied. Up to 500-fold enrichment of analytes could be obtained under the optimized conditions (donor solution: 0.1 M sodium hydroxide solution with 20% sodium chloride and 2% acetone; organic phase: di-n-hexyl ether; acceptor solution: 0.5 M hydrochloric acid and 500 mM 18-crown-6 ether; extraction time of 30 min; stirring at 1,000 rev./min). The procedure also served as a sample clean-up step. The influence of humic acid on the extraction efficiency was also investigated, and more than 85% relative recoveries of the analytes at two different concentrations (20 and 100 microg/l) were achieved at various concentration of humic acid. This technique is a low cost, simple and fast approach to the analysis of polar compounds in aqueous samples.