Determination of aromatic sulfur containing compounds in water samples by using TiO2 nanotube arrays as an adsorbent prior to high performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector

Abstract

A novel and simple analytical method was developed for the rapid determination of three aromatic sulfur containing compounds including dibenzothiophene (DBT), 4-methyldibenzothiophene (4-MDBT), 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) in water samples. Highly ordered TiO₂ nanotube arrays were used as the adsorbent in the extraction procedure. The possible factors that would affect the extraction efficiency have been investigated in detail. Under the optimal conditions, TiO₂ nanotube arrays showed a good adsorptive property for the target analytes. The experimental results demonstrated that low limits of detection (LODs, S/N = 3) of 0.02, 0.037, 0.038 μg L⁻¹ for DBT, 4-MDBT, 4,6-DMDBT were achieved. This proposed method was validated with four real environmental water samples, and the results indicated that good spiked recoveries were in the range of 79.3% to 106.3%. All these results indicated that it is an effective and alternative tool for monitoring trace pollutants.