Magnetic solid-phase extraction based on tetrabenzyl modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles for the analysis of trace polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental water samples

Abstract

A novel sorbent for magnetic solid-phase extraction, 1,4,7,10-tetrabenzyl-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane (TBCD) modified magnetic nanoparticles, was synthesized in this work. The four benzyl groups of TBCD provide the Fe3O4-TBCD nanoparticles with strong adsorption capacity for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) due to their π-π stacking interaction, which increases selectivity of the synthesized material to target analytes. The prepared material was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction patterns, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry. The results indicated that the Fe3O4-TBCD nanoparticles were successfully prepared, and the particles were homogeneous nanospheres with excellent magnetic properties. Based on the optimized extraction conditions, a rapid and effective method was developed for the pre-concentration of PAHs from environmental water samples by combination with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Satisfactory precision and accuracy of the developed method were obtained in a low concentration range of 0.3 ng L(-1) to 1.2 × 10(3) ng L(-1). This method produced lower limits of detection in the range of 3.0 × 10(-2) ng L(-1) to 1.2 ng L(-1). The high pre-concentration rate and efficiency of the method ensure its successful application in extraction of trace PAHs from large volumes of environmental water samples. The extraction recoveries in environmental water samples ranged from 81.1% to 115.5% with the relative standard deviations (n = 5) less than 10%.

Surfactant-modified flowerlike layered double hydroxide-coated magnetic nanoparticles for preconcentration of phthalate esters from environmental water samples

“…However, there are several limitations, such as large backpressure and long sample loading time when they are packed into cartridges. To avoid these limitations, a novel (MSPE) method that uses magnetic nanoparticles as sorbents has been developed [4][5][6][7][8]. Most commonly used non-porous magnetic extractants tend to aggregate and agglomerate and be contaminated in complex nanomaterials would be an idea candidate sorbents for MSPE.…”

Novel Uniform Fe3O4 Hollow Spheres for Magnetic Solid-phase Extraction of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

“…As shown in Table 3, the LOD of this method was significantly lower than those of cyano-ionic liquid functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles by HPLC-DAD and Fe3O4@PPy/CNT nanocomposites by GC-FID. 36,37 However, compared with GC-MS and modified magnetic nanoparticles with HPLC-FLD, 38,39 the LOD for PAHs on those methods was lower than that on prepared Fe3O4 hollow nanospheres. It might result from the Fe3O4 hollow nanospheres without any modification, which provide less interactions between absorbents and PAHs.…”

One-step synthesis of CDTA coated magnetic nanoparticles for selective removal of Cu(II) from aqueous solution

“…In this procedure, there is no need for packing of the column with the sorbent in case of batch mode operation, since the phase separation can be quickly and easily accomplished by applying an external magnetic field. Therefore, the use of magnetic materials in solid phase extraction has received considerable attention [20,21].…”