Comparative Study of Hyper-crosslinked Polymer-Solid Phase Microextraction and Stir Bar Fabric Phase Sorptive Extraction for Simultaneous Determination of Fluoroquinolones in Water

Advancement of novel sorbent materials and efficient extraction mode is urgently needed for sorbent-phase microextraction techniques. Herein, two novel microextraction techniques, hyper-crosslinked polymer-solid phase microextraction (HCP-SPME) and stir bar fabric phase sorptive extraction (stir bar-FPSE), were systematically compared for simultaneous extraction and determination of four fluoroquinolones (FQs) [e.g. ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, enrofloxacin, sparfloxacin] in water by high-performance liquid chromatography. Factors affecting the extraction performance of two proposed methods such as extraction time, pH, ionic strength, and desorption conditions were evaluated. It was indicated that stir bar-FPSE was superior to HCP-SPME for the determination of FQs under the optimal conditions. The limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.03–0.08 μg L−1 for HCP-SPME and 0.02–0.05 μg L−1 for stir bar-FPSE, respectively. High recoveries and relative standard deviations (RSD, n = 5) were 87–96% and 2.8–5.7%, respectively, for HCP-SPME, 90–101% and 2.1–4.6% for stir bar-FPSE. Additionally, the advantages of stir bar-FPSE were shorter extraction time, low cost and higher extraction capacity. Therefore, the stir bar-FPSE method exhibits better application potential for the extraction and determination of FQs in real environmental water samples.Graphical Abstract