Determination of furan in food samples using two solid phase microextraction fibers based on sol-gel technique with gas chromatography-flame ionisation detector

The headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method with two different coatings synthesized by sol-gel technology such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and PEG reinforced with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (PEG/CNTs)] coupled with gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) was proposed for the determination of furan at trace levels in food samples. Under optimized conditions, the linear range for furan with PEG and PEG/CNTs fibers was 0.005-10 and 0.0005-10 ng/mL, the limit of detection (S/N = 3) was 0.001 and 0.00025 ng/mL and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.005 and 0.0005 ng/mL, respectively. For PEG and PEG/CNTs fibers, repeatability (n = 5) was 6.2% and 4.9% and reproducibility (n = 3) was 6.6% and 5.3%, respectively. Relative recoveries for the spiked samples with 0.1 ng/mL of furan were ranged from 92% to 103%. The proposed HS-SPME-GC-FID method was successfully applied for the extraction of furan in two environmental food samples (baby food and fruit juice).