SOLID PHASE MICROEXTRACTION FOR TRACE ANALYSIS OF URINARY BENZENE IN ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

Conventional analytical method for organic pollutants in water requires extraction of the pollutants, using hazardous solvent. Solid phase microextraction is a solvent free equilibrium extraction method, in which, proper calibration can allow quantitative determinations of organic pollutants at a very good sensitivity without the use of any organic solvent. Because individual volatile organic carbons are generally exposed environmentally and present in urine only at trace levels, a sensitive and accurate determination technique is essential. So, this study describes the optimization of headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by GC-FID for benzene in spiked urine. Through this investigations, the parameters affecting the extraction and gas chromatographic determination of analytes, including extraction time, temperature, desorption temperature, desorption time, salt addition, sample pH, sample volume and sample agitation were studied. An optimized headspace extraction was carried out at 30°C for 6 min in the presence of 0.2 g/mL of NaCl in the sample solution. Desorption of the analytes was carried out for 60 sec. at 250°C. The optimized procedure was also validated with three different pools of spiked urine samples and showed a good reproducibility over six consecutive days as well as six within-day experiments. The accuracy, linearity, detection limits were also determined. The headspace solid phase microextraction, GC-FID technique provides a relatively simple, convenient, practical procedure, which was here successfully applied to determine benzene in spiked urine.