Electrolytically produced copper(I) chloride on the copper wire as an excellent sorbent for some amines

A new solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber has been developed and applied for the determination of some amines (n-pentylamine, tripropylamine, dibutylamine, diisobutylamine and tributylamine). In this study two copper wires were immersed in sodium chloride solution and electrolysis was performed at a constant potential. Anode was oxidized to copper(I) to produce copper(I) chloride as a sorbent for the studied amines on the copper wire. Several parameters affecting the fiber preparation and SPME procedure such as electrolysis time, selection of the SPME coating, extraction time and temperature were optimized. The copper(I) chloride fiber was the most appropriate one for the determination of amines by SPME-GC-FID. The optimized method was linear over the range studied (1-100 mug L-1) and showed good precision, with R.S.D values less than 3% for all analytes. Fiber production was reproducible and R.S.D for fiber-to-fiber was less than 8%. The proposed SPME-GC method showed some advantages such as lower detection limits, a shorter analysis time and the avoidance of expensive commercial fibers. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.