A Rapid Procedure for the Determination of C60 and C70 Fullerenes in Soil and Sediments by Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction and HPLC-UV
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ANALYTICAL SCIENCES MAY 2013, VOL. 29 533 2013 © The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry A Rapid Procedure for the Determination of C60 and C70 Fullerenes in Soil and Sediments by Ultrasound-assisted Extraction and HPLC-UV Rosa Ana PÉREZ, Beatriz ALBERO, Esther MIGUEL, José Luis TADEO, and Consuelo SÁNCHEZ-BRUNETE† Departamento de Medio Ambiente, INIA, Ctra de la Coruña, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain In this work, a rapid and sensitive method, based on ultrasound-assisted extraction of samples with a small volume of toluene, has been developed for the quantification of C60 and C70 fullerenes in soil and sediments. Good extraction efficiencies were obtained at all of the fortification levels studied (200, 100, 20 and 2 ng/g), which ranged from 72 to 104%. An important effect of the extraction temperature was observed on C60 recoveries, and an acceptable decrease in the recovery rates was observed in aged samples. In the case of wet samples, the extraction can be done by percolating a small volume of acetonitrile before extraction. The extraction yields of the developed method for the extraction of C60 and C70 from soil were compared with those obtained by pressurized liquid extraction. Finally, analyses of fullerenes in agricultural and industrial soils and sediments were carried out, but no fullerene residues were found. (Received October 15, 2012; Accepted March 6, 2013; Published May 10, 2013) synthesis and application of fullerene materials, but quantitative Introduction information describing the occurrence, behavior, and transport of fullerenes is still lacking. As a result of the ongoing advances in nanotechnology and the Soxhlet extraction and ultrasonic assisted extraction (UAE) increasing use and production of engineered nanoparticles are the procedures most commonly used to extract fullerenes (ENPs) for different purposes, the release of substantial amounts from environmental samples;3,6,9 although for solid samples, of ENPs into the environment is growing, and it is expected to extraction methods such as shaking10 and pressurized liquid increase considerably in the future. Fullerenes are carbonaceous extraction (PLE)3,11 have been reported, too. In general, the nanoparticles made entirely of carbon that may contain methods described above used large amounts of organic solvent pentagonal and hexagonal rings, being C60 (an icosahedral in the extractive process. structure) the most common form and C70, with an oblong Although fullerenes show a poor solubility in most organic form, the next stable fullerene.1,2 Fullerenes have been detected solvents, some aromatic solvents and carbon disulfide, among at very low concentrations in geological materials and in a wide others, are commonly used.12–14 Nowadays, toluene is the most range of extraterrestrial materials;3 therefore, the natural widely used solvent for the solution and extraction of fullerenes, presence of fullerenes has been related to materials affected by and was employed in the extraction methods reported above. high-energy events.4 The use of these compounds in a great Most analytical methods use liquid chromatography (HPLC), variety of commercial products and in many biomedical and combined with ultraviolet-visible detection (UV) or mass industrial applications is expected to be due to their optical and spectrometry (MS) for the detection of fullerenes in geological, electrochemical features, as well as to other properties, such as, environmental or biological samples.4,7 In order to achieve high their high strength and radical scavenging capability.5 As a selectivity and sensitivity in the quantitative analysis of result of the growing industrial applications and increasing fullerenes in environmental samples, HPLC-MS and tandem household usage of fullerenes, there is rising interest regarding MS have been recently applied in the determination of fullerenes their presence, behavior and effects in the environment.1,2,4–7 in water and suspended material of wastewater effluents,15 in rat Although C60 is the main fullerene studied as an emerging tissues and blood16 or in aerosol samples.6 contaminant,8 Sanchís et al.6 found that C70 was the most Although the separation of C60 and C70 can be carried out frequently detected fullerene in airborne particulate matter from with various stationary phases,12 most of the studies available in the Mediterranean Sea. In general for ENPs, and particularly the literature were performed by the separation of these for fullerenes, it is necessary to develop or improve the compounds using C18 columns, or columns that had specifically methodology for their detection and quantification in different designed ligands for fullerene separation.16–19 Despite their good environmental matrices. Thus, in a critical review, Isaacson separation properties and capacity to retain fullerenes with a et al.4 pointed out that many reports had been published on the 100% toluene mobile phase, the main drawback of these specifically designed columns is their high price in comparison † To whom correspondence should be addressed. to a C18 column. Thus, an increase in the use of a C18 column E-mail: [email protected] for fullerenes analysis has been observed.6,11,20,21 534 ANALYTICAL SCIENCES MAY 2013, VOL. 29 The extraction of fullerenes from solid environmental matrices, temperature until spiked. The characteristics of the soil were: such as soil or sediments, has been scarcely reported due to their pH 7.7, moisture content 1%, total organic matter content complexity. Shareef et al.11 reported an analytical method for 0.97%, sand 44.34%, silt 37.44% and clay 18.22%. Surface soil the determination of C60 in soil using PLE followed by from agricultural fields (horticultural and forested) located in HPLC-UV. The main drawbacks of this method were that only different Spanish regions and industrial soils from the area of one fullerene was evaluated, and the relatively high limit of Bilbao, an important industrial region, were sampled, air dried, detection (LOD) achieved (20 μg/kg). In a recent publication, sieved and stored frozen (–18°C) in glass containers until their Wang et al.5 used an artificial sediment to develop an analytical evaluation. method to quantify C60 using HPLC-UV, where the extraction Sediments were obtained from different rivers of Madrid was carried out by shaking using a high solvent volume (40 mL), (Manzanares, Jarama, Henares, Guadarrama and Lozoya). and a high limit of quantification (LOQ) was reported for C60 Sediments were collected into glass containers, previously (0.15 mg/kg) with this methodology. To the best of our rinsed several times with acetone, and stored refrigerated during knowledge, these are the only methods reported for the transport to the laboratory. Before analysis, sediments were determination of fullerenes (C60 only) in soil and sediments. dried at room temperature, sieved and kept frozen at –18°C. In this context, the main objective of our study was to develop a fast and sensitive method for the analysis of C60 and C70 in Extraction procedures soil and sediments by UAE, using a low volume of extraction UAE method. Sieved soil or sediment (5 g ± 0.001) were solvent and without the need of sophisticated extraction weighed into a 10 mL weighing funnel and placed in a glass instrumentation. The effects of the extraction temperature and column (20 mL), 10 cm × 20 mm i.d. (Normax, Portugal), with time, soil moisture and the residence time of residues in soil on a polyethylene frit of 2 cm diameter and 20 μm pore size the recoveries of both compounds by UAE were studied. For (Supelco, Madrid, Spain) at the end. Luer tips of the columns comparative purposes, PLE was applied for the extraction of were closed with 1-way stopcocks. For recovery studies, soil C60 and C70 from soil samples, and both methods were samples were previously spiked with a mixture of fullerenes to compared. Finally, the UAE method was applied to the analysis reach final concentrations of 200, 100, 20 and 2 ng/g, whereas of C60 and C70 fullerenes in soil and sediment samples sediment samples were spiked with fullerenes at 20 and 2 ng/g. collected in different areas of Spain. As far as we know, this is Then, they were covered with aluminum foil and left in dark the first reported method for the simultaneous determinations of conditions at room temperature for 24 h to allow solvent C60 and C70 in soil and sediment by a fast and miniaturized evaporation. The samples were protected from light during the extraction method. whole extraction procedure. Extractions were carried out with an ultrasonic water bath (Raypa, Barcelona, Spain) at room temperature, where water level was adjusted to equal the Experimental extraction solvent level inside the columns. Samples were extracted with 4 mL of toluene in an ultrasonic water bath Reagents and chemicals (15 min). Then the columns were placed on a multiport vacuum Toluene and propan-2-ol, HPLC grade, were purchased from manifold (Supelco, Visiprep, Madrid, Spain) where the solvent Lab Scan, Analytical Science (Poland). Acetonitrile (ACN) was collected in 10 mL graduated tubes. Another 4 mL of gradient 240 nm/far UV, HPLC grade and n-hexane, residue toluene were added to the samples that were sonicated again for analysis grade, were obtained from Scharlab (Barcelona, Spain). 15 min. The solvent was filtered and samples were washed with Fat-free quartz sand was supplied by Buchi AG (Switzerland). 1.5 mL of additional solvent. The combined extracts were LabortechnikFullerene-C60 (99.5%) and [5,6]-fullerene-C70 concentrated to 1 mL using an evaporator Genevac EZ-2 (99%) were supplied by Sigma-Aldrich (Steinheim, Germany). (purchased from NET Interlab, S.A.L., Spain) and 1 mL of ACN Separate stock solutions of individual compounds were made up was added to the tube to obtain a final extract in toluene:ACN at 500 μg/mL in toluene. A working standard mixture containing (50:50, v/v).