A Simple, Rapid and Eco-Friendly Approach for the Analysis of Aromatic Amines in Environmental Water Using Single-Drop Microextraction–Gas Chromatography

Single-drop microextraction (SDME) coupled with gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) was developed for the extraction and determination of aromatic amines (AAs) in environmental water samples. A silicon tube was introduced for the SDME procedure by inserting it into the needle of the micro-injector. In this manner, a large volume of extractant is allowed to be suspended for the extraction, leading to the enhancement of method sensitivity and reproducibility. Extraction parameters which control the performance of SDME such as the type of microextraction solvent and volume, sample pH, ionic strength and extraction time were investigated and optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the SDME–GC method exhibited good linearity from 0.5 to 50 μg mL−1 for aniline and 4-methylaniline and 0.1 to 50 μg mL−1 for N-methylaniline and N, N-diethylaniline. The enrichment factors were calculated to be 42–509. The SDME–GC method was performed for the determination of AAs in environmental water samples including drinking, lake and sea water, and excellent recoveries and relative standard deviations (RSD values) ranging from 79.5 to 122.7% and 3.2 to 13.3%, respectively, were obtained. The results demonstrated that SDME–GC is a rapid, simple and effective sample preparation method and could be successfully applied for the determination of AAs in environmental water samples.