Preliminary study on suitability of ionic liquids as potential passive-sampling media of polyaromatic-hydrocarbon (PAH) analyses in water

Abstract

Recently, ionic liquids (ILs) have been regarded as an attractive water-immiscible phase in liquid-liquid extraction. Because ILs have a wide range of polarity irrespective of their miscibility with water, the possibility of using them as an effective extraction phase for a broad range of contaminants means they are starting to be of particular interest. In this study we investigated a wide variety of ionic liquids, which are known to be hydrolytically stable and of a hydrophobic character, for their potential suitability as passive-sampling media for monitoring selected polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Preliminary research in this field has indicated very promising results using these novel extraction media. Because there is an enormous number of possible cation-anion combinations offering tuneable properties of ionic liquids with the potential for effective passive extraction, we hope this paper will encourage the scientific community to undertake further studies verifying the undoubted usefulness of these alternative solvents as passive samplers for many other groups of analytes. Additionally, because of the unusual solubility properties that have already been proved for ILs, it is very probable that it would soon be possible to deliver a very effective system able to extract analytes differing widely in polarity.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as model solutes for carbon nanomaterials in ionic liquids

“…An IL-based technology can also be used to design special HPLC columns to separate PAH chiral compounds. 47 Various studies of PAHs in IL solutions have been reported, mainly in the scope of extraction applications, such as microextraction, [48][49][50][51][52][53] analytical techniques 54 such as chromatography [55][56][57] or environmental issues. 56,58 In microextraction processes, ILs act as fiber modifiers and the resulting materials are used to extract PAH analytes with higher resolution.…”

“…Their uses in chromatography techniques increase the specificity and selectivity of those methods. Considering environmental issues, Liu et al 58 and Maszkowska et al 56 studied the behaviour of imidazolium, pyridinium, pyrrolidinium, phosphonium, and morpholinium ILs with hexafluorophosphate, tetracyanoborate and bis(trifluoromethylsylfonyl)imide anions as extractants for different PAHs from aqueous solutions. Tetracyanoborate-based ILs were found to be the best extractants for PAHs dissolved in water, especially for low-molecularweight species like phenanthrene or fluoranthene.…”

On the Behavior of Newly Synthesized Functionalized Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids for Highly Efficient Extraction and Separation of Pirimicarb from Orchard Real Wastewater

“…Similarly, researchers used ionic liquids for the removal of contaminants from water. According to the results, ILs were proved as a good alternative material option used for contaminants analysis in water as compared to solid-phase extraction materials due to their universality in liquid media and in an atmospheric environment [20].…”

Ionic liquids for the passive sampling of sulfonamides from water—applicability and selectivity study

“…Recently, we found that ionic liquids (ILs) may be applied as the liquid receiving phase in the passive sampling of PAHs [29] and selected pharmaceuticals [30]. ILs contain large, bulky, organic cations and significantly smaller organic or inorganic anions.…”