Electrodeposition of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) on a stainless steel wire for solid phase microextraction and GC determination of some esters with high boiling points.

In this work, 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) emulsion is prepared by ultrasonication agitation and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) coating is fabricated on a stainless steel wire by electrochemical method from a 0.10M sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate aqueous solution containing EDOT. The coating is characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry, and it presents cauliflower-like structure. When the resulted PEDOT/steel fiber is used for the headspace solid phase-microextraction of some esters (i.e. methyl anthranilate, dimethyl phthalate, ethyl-o-aminobenzoate, methyl laurate and diethyl phthalate) and their GC detection, the limits of detection (LOD) are ca. 7.8-31 ng L(-1) (S/N=3) and the linear ranges are 0.25-800 μg L(-1). The fiber shows high thermal stability (up to 320 °C), good reproducibility and long lifetime (more than 183 times). It also has good chemical stability. After it is immersed in acid, alkali and dichloromethane for 4h its extraction efficiency remains almost unchanged. Besides esters the fiber also exhibits high extraction efficiency for alcohols and aromatic compounds.