Rapid Determination of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Aquatic Matrices by Two-phase Micro-electrodriven Membrane Extraction Combined with Liquid Chromatography

Two-phase micro-electrodriven membrane extraction (EME) procedure for the pre-concentration of selected non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in aquatic matrices was investigated. Agarose film was used as interface between donor and acceptor phase in EME which allowed for selective extraction of the analytes prior to high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection. Charged analytes were transported from basic aqueous sample solution through agarose film into 1-octanol as an acceptor phase at 9 V potential. Response surface methodology in conjunction with the central composite design showed good correlations between extraction time and applied voltage (R2 > 0.9358). Under optimized extraction conditions, the method showed good linearity in the concentration range of 0.5-500 μg L-1 with coefficients of determination, r2≥ 0.9942 and good limits of detection (0.14-0.42 μg L-1) and limits of quantification (0.52-1.21 μg L-1). The results also showed high enrichment factors (62-86) and good relative recoveries (72-114%) with acceptable reproducibilities (RSDs ≤ 7.5% n = 3). The method was successfully applied to the determination of NSAIDs from tap water and river water samples. The proposed method proved to be rapid, simple and requires low voltage and minute amounts of organic solvent, thus environmentally friendly.