Ultrasound-assisted dispersive solid phase nanoextraction of selected personal care products in wastewater followed by their determination using high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector

Highlights: • MPC@Al₂O₃-SiO₂ enabled extraction of analytes with recoveries greater than 95%. • UA-SPNE method was developed for trace analysis of selected personal care products. • The performance of UA-SPNE method was compared with others reported in literature. -- Abstract: This study reports a rapid and simple method based on ultrasound-assisted dispersive solid phase nanoextraction (UA-SPNE) method for the extraction and preconcentration of selected personal care products using MPC@Al₂O₃-SiO₂ nano adsorbent. A high performance liquid chromatograph equipped with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) was used to detect the analytes of interest. Experimental parameters affecting the extraction and preconcentration efficiency of the UA-SPNE (such as mass of adsorbent, extraction time, sample pH and eluent volume,) were optimized using fractional factorial design and response surface methodology based on central composite design. Under optimized conditions, the linear range for benzophenone, N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide and trichlorocarbanilide were in the interval of LOQ-1000 μg L⁻¹ with correlation coefficients ranged from 0.9907 to 0.9977. The limits of detection and limits of quantification were 0.066–0.096 μg L⁻¹ and 0.22–0.32 μg L⁻¹, respectively. The accuracy of the UA-SPNE/HPLC-DAD method was evaluated using spike recovery test and the recoveries were in the range of 98–107%. The repeatability and reproducibility of the method 0.8–1.0 % and 2.4–4.4%, respectively.