Use of aloin-based and rosin-based electrospun nanofibers as natural nanosorbents for the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and phenoxyacetic acid herbicides by microextraction in packed syringe method prior to GC-FID detection

Fabrication of covalent organic frameworks modified nanofibrous membrane for efficiently enriching and detecting the trace polychlorinated biphenyls in water

Enriching and detecting the trace pollutants in actual matrices are critical to evaluating the water quality. Herein, a novel nanofibrous membrane, named PAN-SiO₂@TpPa, was prepared by in situ growing β-ketoenamine-linked covalent organic frameworks (COF-TpPa) on the aminated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers, and adopted for enriching the trace polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in various natural water body (river, lake and sea water) through the solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) process. The resulted nanofibrous membrane owned abundant functional groups (-NH-, -OH and aromatic groups), outstandingly thermal and chemical stability, and excellent ability in extracting PCBs congeners. Based on the SPME process, the PCBs congeners could be quantitatively analyzed by the traditional gas chromatography (GC) method, with the satisfactory linear relationship (R²>0.99), low detection limit (LODs, 0.1∼5 ng L^-1), high enrichment factors (EFs, 2714∼3949) and multiple recycling (>150 runs). Meanwhile, when PAN-SiO₂@TpPa was adopted in the real water samples, the low matrix effects on the enrichment of PCBs at both 5 and 50 ng L^-1 over PAN-SiO₂@TpPa membrane firmly revealed the feasibility of enriching the trace PCBs in real water. Besides, the related mechanism of extracting PCBs on PAN-SiO₂@TpPa mainly involved the synergistic effect of hydrophobic effect, π-π stacking and hydrogen bonding.

Application of phosphonium deep eutectic solvents as extractants in ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction for preconcentration of trace amounts of herbicides in drainage ditches waters

In this study, an efficient preconcentration method was presented that is based on dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction taking the advantage of newly synthesized phosphonium deep eutectic solvents used as extractants and ultrasound probe as a dispersing agent. The extracts obtained were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. To optimize the five most important factors for the microextraction procedure a central composite design plan was used. Under optimal conditions (140 μl of extractant, 60 mg of NaCl, pH = 2.0, 120 s of extraction time with ultrasound probe as the dispersing agent, 16 min of centrifugation for phase separation), the proposed method allowed to achieve good precision with RSD between 3.2% and 9.7% at 1.0, 5.0 and 40.0 ng ml levels. The preconcentration factors were equal to 42, 39, and 41, and the limits of detection 0.128, 0.103, and 0.135 ng/ml for dicamba, 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, and 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxypropionic acid, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of chlorophenoxy acid herbicides in water samples from drainage ditches with a good recovery in the range of 70%-93%.

Sustainable Applications of Nanofibers in Agriculture and Water Treatment: A Review

Natural fibers are an important source for producing polymers, which are highly applicable in their nanoform and could be used in very broad fields such as filtration for water/wastewater treatment, biomedicine, food packaging, harvesting, and storage of energy due to their high specific surface area. These natural nanofibers could be mainly produced through plants, animals, and minerals, as well as produced from agricultural wastes. For strengthening these natural fibers, they may reinforce with some substances such as nanomaterials. Natural or biofiber-reinforced bio-composites and nano–bio-composites are considered better than conventional composites. The sustainable application of nanofibers in agricultural sectors is a promising approach and may involve plant protection and its growth through encapsulating many bio-active molecules or agrochemicals (i.e., pesticides, phytohormones, and fertilizers) for smart delivery at the targeted sites. The food industry and processing also are very important applicable fields of nanofibers, particularly food packaging, which may include using nanofibers for active–intelligent food packaging, and food freshness indicators. The removal of pollutants from soil, water, and air is an urgent field for nanofibers due to their high efficiency. Many new approaches or applicable agro-fields for nanofibers are expected in the future, such as using nanofibers as the indicators for CO and NH3. The role of nanofibers in the global fighting against COVID-19 may represent a crucial solution, particularly in producing face masks.

Development of monolith/aminated carbon nanotubes composite-based solid-phase microextraction of phenoxycarboxylic acids herbicides in water and soil samples

In this study, a new adsorbent based on monolith/aminated carbon nanotubes composite was facilely prepared and employed as the extraction phase of multiple monolithic fibers solid-phase microextraction for the capture of phenoxycarboxylic acids herbicides. The adsorbent was fabricated by mingling aminated carbon nanotubes in the poly (allylthiourea-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) monolith. Various techniques were employed to characterize the morphology, structure, and pore size of the prepared adsorbent. The proposed microextraction method displayed satisfactory capture performance towards studied analytes through multi-interactions such as hydrogen-bonding, hydrophobic and π-π interactions. Under the optimized conditions, a sensitive and reliable method to quantify trace analytes in water and soil samples was developed. The limits of detection were in the ranges of 0.13-0.25 μg/L and 0.20-0.61 μg/kg for water and soil samples, respectively. The practicality of the introduced method was demonstrated by applying it to monitor the contents of studied analytes in environmental water and soil samples. Satisfactory fortified recoveries (76.4-119%) and reproducibility were obtained. The achieved results well demonstrated that the suggested microextraction technique can efficiently extract phenoxycarboxylic acids and the developed method exhibits a promising potential for reliable and sensitive quantification of trace analytes in complex samples.

Using PVA/CA/Au NPs electrospun nanofibers as a green nanosorbent to preconcentrate and determine Pb2+and Cu2+in rice samples, water sources and cosmetics

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/citric acid (CA)/Au NPs electrospun nanofibers was synthesized and applied as a green and efficient sorbent to extract and preconcentrate Pb²⁺and Cu²⁺from water sources, rice samples and cosmetics before FAAS.