| An air-assisted liquid-liquid microextraction method has been developed by gas
chromatography-flame ionization detection for the extraction, derivatization,
and determination of five short chain fatty acids including acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, valeric acid, and caproic acid from different fruit juices.
In this method, butyl chloroformate was used as extraction solvent and derivatization agent, simultaneously. For this purpose, sample solution was adjusted at
pH 8 and then mixed with picoline (as a catalyst). Next, a few microliters of butyl
chloroformate was added to the solution and after performing predetermined
extraction cycles, the obtained cloudy solution was centrifuged. An aliquot of
the sedimented phase was injected into the determination system. Low limits of
detection (3.23–9.63 ng/mL) and quantification (10.8–32.4 ng/mL) were obtained.
The method had a proper repeatability (relative standard deviations ≤ 7.38%) for
intra- (n = 6) and interday (n = 5) precisions at a concentration of 50 ng/mL (each
analyte). High enrichment factors (360–415), extraction recoveries (72–93%), and
enhancement factors (1126–1852) were obtained. The developed method was successfully used in determination of the analytes in the studied samples. |