Gas flow-assisted headspace-single drop microextraction to determine benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene in aqueous samples

In this study, a gas flow-assisted headspace-single drop microextraction method was used to extract, pre-concentrate and measure benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes compounds in aqueous samples through gas chromatography. This extraction method is very simple, cheap and environmentally friendly as well as consumes very small amounts of organic solvents. In this extraction method, occurring at the liquid–gas interface, the target analytes interact with the gas molecules in the bubbles. The independent variables such as solvent type, solvent volume, extraction time and ionic strength of the solution were investigated. Under optimal conditions, the dynamic linear range of the method was 0.74–100.0 μg L−1, limit of detection was 0.52–0.63 μg L−1 and, enhancement factor were 241–357. Intraday and interday precision for all the goal analytes were<5.1 % and 8.7 %, respectively. Finally, this extraction method was successfully used to extract, pre-concentrate and measure goal compounds in aqueous samples with a satisfactory recovery in the range of 84.2–102.4 %.