Competitive extraction of multi-component contaminants in water by Carboxen–polydimethylsiloxane fiber during solid-phase microextraction

A headspace analysis for groundwater contaminated with BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) was employed to investigate the feasibility and limitations of Carboxen–PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) fiber during SPME (solid-phase microextraction). Although the response of the Carboxen–PDMS fiber was much higher than that of conventional PDMS fiber, a reduction of the extracted amount was also observed under multi-component conditions due to competitive replacement. The general affinity of analytes to the fiber was high in the order xylene>ethylbenzene>toluene>benzene. The behavior of the Carboxen–PDMS fiber was examined more precisely at constant compositional ratio, because the analysis of contaminants using Carboxen–PDMS fiber was reported to be possible at known composition. The relative affinity of each component was shown to differ according to the total amount of analytes. Furthermore, the extracted amounts of benzene and toluene did not show a consistent tendency as the concentration of each component increased. These results indicate that caution should be exercised if Carboxen–PDMS fibers are used for the analysis of BTEX in groundwater samples.