Separation and determination of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and o-xylene compounds in water using directly suspended droplet microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-flame ionization detector

The directly suspended droplet microextraction (DSDME) technique coupled with the capillary gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) was used to determine BTEX compounds in aqueous samples. The effective parameters such as organic solvent, extraction time, microdroplet volume, salt effect and stirring speed were optimized. The performance of the proposed technique was evaluated for the determination of BTEX compounds in natural water samples. Under the optimal conditions the enrichment factors ranged from 142.68 to 312.13, linear range; 0.01-20 μg mL⁻¹, limits of detection; 0.8-7 ng mL⁻¹ for most analytes. Relative standard deviations for 0.2 μg mL⁻¹ of BTEX in water were in the range 1.81-2.47% (n = 5). The relative recoveries of BTEX from surface water at spiking level of 0.2 μg mL⁻¹ were in the range of 89.87-98.62%.