Application of solvent microextraction in a single drop for the determination of new antifouling agents in waters

A new, rapid microextraction technique termed solvent microextraction (SME) has been developed for the simultaneous determination of new generation antifouling agents, in water samples. Chlorothalonil, dichlofluanid and Sea nine 211 were employed as model compounds to asses the extraction procedure and were determined by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Experimental parameters which control the performance of SME, such as selection of solvent, exposure time, agitation, organic drop volume, and salt concentration were optimized. The new method provided good average enrichment factors of >10.7 for all analytes, good precision (RSD < 8.5%) and good linearity (r2 > 0.9880). The limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.00025–0.003 μg/L (S/N = 3). The SME was performed in different type of natural water samples and acceptable recoveries were obtained for the tested analytes. The results demonstrated that SME is a rapid, accurate and effective preparation method and could be successfully performed for the determination of antifouling agents in water samples.