Triazine covalent organic polymer coated stir bar sorptive extraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography for the analysis of trace phthalate esters in mineral water and liquor samples.

Abstract Cyanuric chloride and 4,4′-diamino-p-terphenyl were adopted as monomers to synthesize poly (4,4′-diamino-p-terphenyl-triazine) (PDT) covalent organic polymer. PDT coated stir bar was prepared and evaluated for the extraction of five phthalate esters (PAEs) with relatively lower logP values (2.7-4.9), including diethyl phthalate, diallyl phthalate, dipropyl phthalate, benzylbutyl phthalate and dibutyl phthalate. It exhibited higher extraction recovery (> 65%) and faster extraction kinetics (50 min vs 240 min) for target PAEs over commercial polydimethylsiloxane coated stir bar. Based on the superior performance, PDT coated stir bar sorptive extraction was combined with high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection for trace analysis of five PAEs plasticizers. The limits of detection for target PAEs were 0.04-0.27 μg/L, with the enrichment factors of 54-80-fold. The potential of the method was demonstrated by detecting five target PAEs in Chinese liquor and mineral water samples. No target analytes were detected in Chinese liquor sample, and recoveries of 85.4-109% were obtained for target analytes in spiked liquor samples; trace diethyl phthalate (1.19-2.98 μg/L) and dibutyl phthalate (0.77-0.91 μg/L) were detected in two mineral water samples, with recoveries of 85.4-117% and 87.4-117% respectively in spiked mineral water samples.