Titanium dioxide nanotube fiber using in headspace solid-phase microextraction with GC-MS for BTEX detection.

Anodized TiO2 nanotube fibers using in-headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) have been exploited as an analytical method for volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) detection. The factors of anodizing time and annealing temperature for TiO2 nanotube production are studied and the adsorption factors (time, ionic strength, and temperature) and desorption factors (time and temperature) for BTEX analysis are optimized. The limit of detections (LODs) for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene o-xylene, and m, p-xylene are 0.5, 0.1, 1.0, 1.0, and 2.0 µg L-1, respectively. The linear ranges for BTEX (0.5-15,000 µg L-1) and satisfactory linearity (R² ≥ 0.9954) are obtained. This method is successfully applied in real samples with the recoveries ranging from 92% to 97%. TiO2 nanotube fiber is a promising technique for BTEX analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]