Application of porous membrane-protected micro-solid-phase extraction combined with HPLC for the analysis of acidic drugs in wastewater

This report describes the use of a porous membrane-protected micro-solid-phase extraction (μ-SPE) procedure to extract acidic drugs from wastewater that are then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection. The μ-SPE device consists of C₁₈ sorbent held within a membrane envelope made of polypropylene. Ketoprofen and ibuprofen were selected as model compounds, and extraction parameters were optimized. Correlation coefficients of 0.9980 and 0.9953 were obtained for ketoprofen and ibuprofen, respectively, across a concentration range of 1-250 μg/L. Relative extraction recoveries were between 94 and 112%. The relative standard deviation of the analytical method ranged between 2 and 10%, respectively. The method detection limits for these target analytes in wastewater ranged from 0.03 to 0.08 μg/L. When compared to conventional solid-phase extraction (SPE), this new method showed better detection limits with good reproducibility. The results shows that this μ-SPE technique is a feasible alternative to multistep SPE for the extraction of analytes in complex samples.