Hydrophobic and aromatic polymer nanofibers for a spin-filter micro solid phase extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in river water

The use of hydrophobic and aromatic polymer nanofibers as novel sorbents for extracting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from river water has been evaluated. Of the materials tested, the biodegradable aliphatic polymer polycaprolactone (PCL) exhibited strong retention of all analytes via hydrophobic interactions. In contrast, the aromatic polymer polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) demonstrated superior performance with higher-ring PAHs due to a combination of hydrophobic and π–π stacking interactions. The porous, permeable structure of the fibrous sorbents enabled rapid extraction. The spin-filter µSPE format required only 10 s for sorbent activation, extraction, and elution, resulting in a total processing time of 30 s per sample. Up to 48 samples could be processed simultaneously, reducing manual handling and simplifying the workflow. Analytical performance was evaluated using river water spiked at different concentration levels. The method showed good linearity (R² ≥ 0.98) across concentration ranges of 0.1–5 µg L⁻¹ for most analytes, with limits of detection of 0.009–0.14 µg L⁻¹ for PCL and 0.012–0.27 µg L⁻¹ for PPS. Recoveries ranged from 57–102 % for PCL and 88–139 % for PPS, with relative standard deviations below 15 %, and preconcentration factors of approximately twofold. These results demonstrate that meltblown PCL and PPS nanofibers combined with spin-filter µSPE provide a rapid and practical approach to extracting PAHs from environmental water samples.