Determination of ultraviolet filters in environmental water samples by temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction

In the present study, a rapid, highly efficient and environmentally friendly sample preparation method named temperature-controlled ionic liquid dispersive liquid-phase microextraction (TC-IL-DLPME), followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for the extraction, preconcentration and determination of four benzophenone-type ultraviolet (UV) filters (viz. benzophenone (BP), 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone (BP-3), ethylhexyl salicylate (EHS) and homosalate (HMS)) from water samples. An ultra-hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL) 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate (HMIM]FAP]), was used as the extraction solvent in TC-IL-DLPME. Temperature served two functions here, the promotion of the dispersal of the IL to the aqueous sample solution to form infinitesimal IL drops and increase the interface between them and the target analytes (at high temperature), and the facilitation of mass transfer between the phases, and achievement of phase separation (at low temperature). Due to the ultra-hydrophobic feature and high density of the extraction solvent, complete phase separation could be effected by centrifugation. Moreover, no disperser solvent was required. Another prominent feature of the procedure was the combination of extraction and centrifugation in a single step, which not only greatly reduced the total analysis time for TC-IL-DLPME but also simplified the sample preparation procedure. Various parameters that affected the extraction efficiency (such as type and volume of extraction solvent, temperature, salt addition, extraction time and pH) were evaluated. Under optimal conditions, the proposed method provided good enrichment factors in the range of 240–350, and relative standard deviations (n = 5) below 6.3%. The limits of detection were in the range of 0.2–5.0 ng/mL, depending on the analytes. The linearities were between 1 and 500 ng/mL for BP, 5 and 1000 ng/mL for BP-3, 10 and 1000 ng/mL for HMS and 5 and 1000 ng/mL for EHS. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of UV filters in swimming pool and tap water samples and acceptable relative recoveries over the range of 88.0–116.0% were obtained.