Fabric Phase Sorptive Extraction on Emerging Contaminants in Environmental Waters

Emerging contaminants in water is a major focus of many environmental and public health organizations worldwide.^1-2 Specifically, emerging contaminants of concern are pharmaceuticals such as over the counter drugs, hormonal supplements, and veterinary medicines. It is known that trace amounts of these chemicals are present in drinking water and in surface water. These chemicals have adverse effects on wildlife and the subsequent ecosystems, and in added concern, the long term effects that EC’s will have on humans is still not certain.³ Analytical chemists’ responsibility in this dilemma is to identify potential contaminants of concern and to find the prevalence of EC’s in different environmental samples. In order to help these policy making organizations, analytical chemists need to develop suitable analytical methods for emerging contaminants such as, pharmaceuticals and personal care products that are effective at very low concentrations; as they would exist in low levels in drinking and surface waters.⁴ Solid phase microextraction currently is the leading extraction method for these purposes. However, SPME is time consuming and requires many sample clean up procedures pre extraction that can result in analyte loss.^4-5 Therefore, this may not be the best option for many studies. Fabric phase sorptive extraction is a sample preparation method that is just one part of the whole analytical process of environmental sample analysis.⁴ FPSE is an efficient, green, new generation sample preparation technique that in a short period of time can be applied to a variety of sample matrices including polluted water without sample filtration. The porous sorbent coating and permeable substrate work together and achieve fast extraction equilibrium.^6-7 FPSE allows for direct insertion into unmodified samples, is compatible with analysis methods, has a high sample capacity, and good extraction sensitivity.⁴ Therefore, FPSE is a valid and promising new extraction technique that should be more widely used in environmental studies.

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7. Santana-Viera, S.; Guedes-Alonso, R.; Sosa-Ferrera, Z.; Santana-Rodríguez, J. J.; Kabir, A.; Furton, K. G. Journal of Chromatography A 2017, 1529, 39–49.