Polydopamine-coated cotton fibers as the adsorbent for in-tube solid-phase microextraction.

Polydopamine was coated onto cotton fibers as the adsorbent to improve the extraction efficiency. Polydopamine-coated cotton fibers were placed into a polyetheretherketone tube for in-tube solid-phase microextraction. To develop an online analysis system, the extraction tube was connected with high-performance liquid chromatography. The tube was evaluated with five estrogenic analytes, and the extraction and desorption conditions were optimized to get high extraction efficiency. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factors of five analytes were 143-1745. An online analysis method was established, it had large linear ranges (0.10-40 and 0.16-40 μg/L), low limits of detection (0.03, 0.05 μg/L) and satisfactory repeatability (≤3.2%). The analysis method was applied to detect targets in the real samples like as hot water in new plastic cup and tap water. The relative recoveries spiked at 1 and 5 μg/L in these samples were investigated and the results were in the range of 83.7-109%.