Development of a static and exhaustive extraction procedure for field passive preconcentration of chlorophenols in environmental waters with hollow fiber-supported liquid membrane

A static and exhaustive extraction mode of hollow fiber-supported liquid membrane was developed for field sample passive pretreatment of environmental water samples. The extraction device was prepared by immobilizing dihexyl ether in the wall of a polypropylene hollow fiber membrane (60 cm length, 50 μm wall thickness, and 280 μm id) as liquid membrane and filling the fiber lumen with 0.1 M NaOH as acceptor, and closing the two ends of the fiber with an aluminum foil. Passive extraction was conducted by immersing the device into 15 mL water samples modified with 0.01 M HCl and 20% m/v NaCl. Model analytes including 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol were transferred into acceptor with extraction efficiencies over 79% in 10 h at room temperature, and determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The proposed method has the enrichment factor of 394-498 and LOD of 0.3-0.4 μg/L for the three chlorophenols. Humic acid and salinity in the environmentally relevant range had no significant influence on the extraction, and chlorophenols in various environmental waters were determined with spike recoveries between 71.6 and 120%. The static passive extraction nature benefited field sample pretreatment without power, whereas the exhaustive extraction mode effectively eliminated the sample matrix effects.