Amino ethyl-functionalized nanoporous silica as a novel SPME fiber coating for determination of volatile components of Cumin Seeds

Among the many different methods utilized for extraction of essential oil of plant materials, microextraction techniques have found extensive applications in recent years [1]. A headspace solvent microextraction coupled to GC-MS was recently used by Hashemi and co-workers [2] for the study of the effect of N-fertilization and plant density on the essential oil composition and yield of Cuminum cyminum L. seeds.Ordered nanoporous silica such as MCM-41[3], LUS-1 [4], and SBA-15 [5] with very high surface area, uniform open form structure and extremely narrow pore size distribution has great potential for application in many fields such as catalysts [5], preconcentration of metals [6], drug delivery [7], and modified carbon paste electrodes [8]. Limited studies have been performed on the application of nanoporous silica for solid-phase microextraction (SPME) [9,10]. Du et al. [10] reported the use of a phenyl-functionalized MCM-41-typed mesoporous hybrid as a fiber coating for SPME of aromatic compounds in combination of HPLC. They found that the mesoporous coatings provide higher sensitivity and better selectivity of extraction than bonded silica phase coating.In this work a novel SPME fiber is prepared by coating amino ethyl-functionalized SBA-15 nanoporous particles on a copper wire. The new fiber is applied to the study of the effect of climate on the essential oil composition of Cuminum cyminum L. seeds