Selective extraction of aliphatic amines by functionalized mesoporous silica-coated solid phase microextraction Arrow

Mesoporous silica-coated solid phase microextraction (SPME) Arrow systems were developed for capturing of low-molecular-weight aliphatic amines (LMWAAs) from complicated sample matrices. Specifically, silicas of type MCM-41, SBA-15 and KIT-6 were chosen as substrates to afford size-exclusion selectivity. They possess ordered multidimensional pore-channel structures and mesopore sizes between 3.8 and 8.2 nm. Their surface acidity was enhanced by grafting them with a layer of titanium hydrogenphosphate (-TP). This enhanced the chemical selectivity for basic LMWAAs. The siliceous coatings increased the extraction of ethylamine, diethylamine (DEA) and triethylamine (TEA) by factors of 18.6–102.5, 4.8–10.8 and 2.6–4.0, respectively, when compared to the commercial SPME Arrow with polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene coating. Among them, the MCM-41 and MCM-41-TP coated SPME Arrows demonstrated exceptional selectivity towards LMWAAs that were quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The total peak area ratios of LMWAAs/ten competing compounds were 25.4 and 36.3, respectively. The extraction equilibrium was reached within 20–30 min. The MCM-41 and MCM-41-TP derived SPME Arrows gave very similar results (18.4 ± 2.1–376 ± 12 ng g−1 to DEA and TEA) when applied to urban mushroom samples. SPME Arrow with MCM-41 coatings followed by GC-MS was applied also to the analysis of atmospheric air and urine samples resulting in high selectivity due to the size and mesoporous structure of the functionalized silica, and its chemical interactions with the LMWAAs.