A novel fiber prepared from waste phosphogypsum for SPME of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by GC-FID

In this work, we propose a new method for resource utilization of PG by using octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) to modify the surface of PG to enhance its hydrophobic property. The modified PG was further coated on the surface of stainless steel wire to obtain PG/OTMS fiber for headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Some properties of the prepared PG/OTMS fiber like morphology, structure and stability were tested. The extraction mechanism by the PG/OTMS fiber for PAHs was discussed, which mainly owed to non-covalent cation-π interaction and hydrophobic interactions. Under the optimal extraction condition, an HS-SPME combined with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) based on PG/OTMS fiber was established for the analysis and detection of trace PAHs in lake water, which exhibits a good linear range (0.1–100 ng mL −1 ), low LODs (0.03–0.31 ng mL −1 ), and good reproducibility (3.28–9.09%). The HS-SPME/GC-FID analytical approach based on PG/OTMS fibers opens up new avenues for the application of PG in chromatographic analysis and sample pretreatment. In addition, the application of PG/OTMS provides a reference to solve the environmental pollution caused by the long-term accumulation of PG, thus realizing the resource utilization of waste PG. Graphical abstract