A new 1,3-dibutylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ionic liquid-based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction to determine organophosphorus pesticides in water and fruit samples by high-performance liquid chromatography.

The paper described a new ionic liquid, 1,3-dibutylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, as extraction solvent for extraction and preconcentration of organophosphorus pesticides (fenitrothion, parathion, fenthion and phoxim) from water and fruit samples by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction combined with high-performance liquid chromatography. The effects of experimental parameters, such as extraction solvent volume, disperser solvent and its volume, extraction and centrifugal time, sample pH, extraction temperature and salt addition, on the extraction efficiency were investigated. An extraction recovery of over 75% and enrichment factor of over 300-fold were obtained under the optimum conditions. The linearity relationship was also observed in the range of 5-1000 microgL(-1) with the correlation coefficients (r(2)) ranging from 0.9988 to 0.9999. Limits of detection were 0.01-0.05 microgL(-1) for four analytes. The relative standard deviations at spiking three different concentration levels of 20, 100 and 500 microgL(-1) varied from 1.3-2.7, 1.4-1.9 and 1.1-1.7% (n=7), respectively. Three real samples including tap water, Yellow River water and pear spiked at three concentration levels were analyzed and yielded recoveries ranging from 92.7-109.1, 95.0-108.2 and 91.2-108.1%, respectively.