Ampholine-functionalized hybrid organic–inorganic silica material as sorbent for solid-phase extraction of acidic and basic compounds

Halloysite nanotubes-based hybrid silica monolithic spin tip for hydrophilic solid-phase extraction of sulbactam, cefoperazone, and cefuroxime in whole blood

In this study, we proposed a novel method utilizing polyethyleneimine (PEI)-modified halloysite nanotubes (HNTs)-based hybrid silica monolithic spin tip to analyze hydrophilic β-lactam antibiotics and β-lactamases inhibitors in whole blood samples for the first time. HNTs were incorporated directly into the hybrid silica monolith via a sol-gel method, which improved the hydrophilicity of the matrix. The as-prepared monolith was further modified with PEI by glutaraldehyde coupling reaction. It was found that the PEI-modified HNTs-based hybrid silica monolith enabled a large adsorption capacity of cefoperazone at 35.7 mg g-1. The monolithic spin tip-based purification method greatly reduced the matrix effect of whole blood samples and had a detection limit as low as 0.1 - 0.2 ng mL-1. In addition, the spiked recoveries of sulbactam, cefuroxime, and cefoperazone in blank whole blood were in the range of 89.3-105.4 % for intra-day and 90.6-103.5 % for inter-day, with low relative standard deviations of 1.3-7.2 % and 4.9-10.5 %, respectively. This study introduces a new strategy for preparing nanoparticles incorporated in a hybrid silica monolith with a high adsorption capacity. Moreover, it offers a valuable tool to monitor sulbactam, cefoperazone, and cefuroxime in whole blood from pregnant women with the final aim of guiding their administration.

Development of sol-gel silica-based mixed-mode zwitterionic sorbents for determining drugs in environmental water samples

Four novel mixed-mode zwitterionic silica-based functionalized with strong moieties sorbents were synthesized and evaluated through solid-phase extraction (SPE) to determine acidic and basic drugs in environmental water samples. All sorbents had the same functionalization: quaternary amine and sulfonic groups and C₁₈ chains so that hydrophobic and strong cationic exchange (SCX) and strong anionic exchange (SAX) interactions could be exploited, in addition, two of them had carbon microparticles embedded. All sorbents retained both acidic and basic compounds in the preliminary assays but only the basic compounds were retained selectively through ionic exchange interactions when a clean-up step was introduced. The SPE method was therefore optimized to promote the selective retention of the basic compounds, initially with the two best-performing sorbents. After optimization of the SPE protocol, these sorbents were evaluated for the analysis of environmental water samples using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The method with the best-performing sorbent was then validated with 100 mL of river samples and 50 mL of effluent wastewater samples in terms of apparent recoveries (%R_app) spiking samples at 50 ng/L (river) and 200 ng/L (river and effluent), matrix effect, linear range, method quantification and detection limits, repeatability, and reproducibility. It should be highlighted that %R_app ranged from 40 to 85% and matrix effects ranged from -17 to -4% for spiked river samples. When the method was applied to river and effluent wastewater samples, most compounds were found in the range from 24 to 1233 ng/L with detection limits from 1 to 5 ng/L.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering-based detection of hazardous chemicals in various phases and matrices with plasmonic nanostructures

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based sensors utilize the electromagnetic-field enhancement of plasmonic substrates with the chemical specificity of vibrational Raman spectroscopy to identify trace amounts of a wide variety of different target analytes while being minimally affected by photobleaching. However, despite many advantageous features of this method, SERS sensors, particularly for detecting hazardous chemicals, suffer from several limitations such as requirement of gigantic signal enhancement that is often poorly controllable, subtle change and degradation of the SERS substrate, consecutive fluctuation of the signal, the lack of reliable receptors for capturing targets of interest and the absence of general principles for detecting various chemicals in different phases and matrices. To overcome these limitations and for SERS sensors to find practical use, one must (1) acknowledge the characteristics of the matrices of target systems, (2) finely engineer and tune the receptors of the SERS sensor to properly extract the target analyte from the phase, and (3) implement additional mechanistic modifications to enhance the plasmonic signal. This minireview underlines the difficulties associated with different phases and a wide range of target analytes, and introduces the practical measures undertaken to overcome the respective difficulties in SERS-based detection of hazardous chemicals.

Graphene oxide reinforced ionic liquid-functionalized adsorbent for solid-phase extraction of phenolic acids

An environmental friendly sorbent of polymeric ionic liquids modified graphene oxide-grafted silica (PILs@GO@Sil) was synthesized for solid-phase extraction (SPE) of phenolic acids. The sorbent was prepared via a chemical layer-to-layer fabrication including amidation reaction, surface radical chain-transfer polymerization and in situ anion exchange. After modification with PILs, the silica surface had higher positive potential so that it would exhibit stronger electrostatic interaction for acidic compounds compared with GO@Sil. The adsorption performance of phenolic acids was investigated through the theoretical calculation and static, kinetic state adsorption experiments. Under the optimized conditions, wide linear ranges were obtained with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9912 to 0.9998, and limits of detection were in the range of 0.20-0.50μgL^-1. Compared with other reported methods, the proposed PILs@GO@Sil-SPE-HPLC showed higher extraction efficiency. Finally, the black wolfberry yogurt and urine were analyzed as real samples and good recoveries spiked with standard solution were obtained.

Advances in organic-inorganic hybrid sorbents for the extraction of organic and inorganic pollutants in different types of food and environmental samples

The efficiency of the extraction and removal of pollutants from food and the environment has been an important issue in analytical science. By incorporating inorganic species into an organic matrix, a new material known as an organic-inorganic hybrid material is formed. As it possesses high selectivity, permeability, and mechanical and chemical stabilities, organic-inorganic hybrid materials constitute an emerging research field and have become popular to serve as sorbents in various separaton science methods. Here, we review recent significant advances in analytical solid-phase extraction employing organic-inorganic composite/nanocomposite sorbents for the extraction of organic and inorganic pollutants from various types of food and environmental matrices. The physicochemical characteristics, extraction properties, and analytical performances of sorbents are discussed; including morphology and surface characteristics, types of functional groups, interaction mechanism, selectivity and sensitivity, accuracy, and regeneration abilities. Organic-inorganic hybrid sorbents combined with extraction techniques are highly promising for sample preparation of various food and environmental matrixes with analytes at trace levels.

A novel molybdenum disulfide nanosheet self-assembled flower-like monolithic sorbent for solid-phase extraction with high efficiency and long service life

A novel material consisting of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanosheet that self-assemble into flower-like microspheres which aggregate to form a monolithic matrix with a micro or nano-scaled mesopore structure was successfully synthesized and used as an efficient sorbent for solid-phase extraction (SPE) due to its large specific adsorption area and good stability. The extraction properties of the as-prepared sorbent were evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography with variable wavelength detection (HPLC-VWD) by analyzing four flavonoids (apigenin, quercetin, luteolin, and kaempferol). Under optimal conditions, the LODs and LOQs were found to be in the ranges of 0.1-0.25 and 0.4-0.5μgL^-1, respectively, and wide linear ranges were obtained with correlation coefficients (R) ranging from 0.9991 to 0.9996. Compared with commercial C18 and Alumina-N sorbents, the as-prepared sorbent showed high extraction efficiency at different concentrations of flavonoids. After 100 uses, the extraction ability of the self-assembled MoS₂ nanosheet monolithic sorbent had no evident decline, denoting a long service life. Finally, the SPE-HPLC-VWD method using the as-prepared sorbent was applied to flavonoid analysis in beverage samples with satisfactory results.

Preparation of a graphene oxide/silica composite modified with nitro-substituted tris(indolyl)methane as a solid-phase extraction sorbent for the extraction of organic acids

This paper describes the use of graphene oxide/silica modified with nitro-substituted tris(indolyl)methane as a solid-phase extraction sorbent for the determination of organic acids. The resultant graphene oxide/silica modified with nitro-substituted tris(indolyl)methane was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and adsorption experiments. Solid-phase extraction parameters such as sorbent type, sample solution pH, sample loading rate, eluent salt concentration, eluent methanol concentration, elution rate, sample loading, and elution volume were optimized. The method showed good precision, accuracy, sensitivity, and linear response for organic acids analysis over a concentration range of 1-100 μg/L for benzoic acid, p-methoxybenzoic acid, and salicylic acid and 5-100 μg/L for the remaining organic acids (cinnamic acid, p-chlorobenzoic acid, and p-bromobenzoic acid) with coefficients of determination (r(2) ) of higher than 0.9957. Limits of detection from 0.50 to 1.0 μg/L for six organic acids were achieved. The developed method was successfully applied to determine organic acids in real samples.

Preparation of an aminopropyl imidazole-modified silica gel as a sorbent for solid-phase extraction of carboxylic acid compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

In this paper, a kind of aminopropyl imidazole-modified silica sorbent was synthesized and used as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbent for the determination of carboxylic acid compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The resultant aminopropyl imidazole-modified silica sorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and elemental analysis (EA) to ensure the successful binding of aminopropyl imidazole on the surface of silica gel. Then the aminopropyl imidazole-modified silica sorbent served as a SPE sorbent for the enrichment of carboxylic acid compounds and PAHs. The new sorbent exhibited high extraction efficiency towards the tested compounds and the results show that such a sorbent can offer multiple intermolecular interactions: electrostatic, π-π, and hydrophobic interactions. Several parameters affecting the extraction recovery, such as the pH of sample solution, the pH of eluent, the solubility of eluent, the volume of eluent, and sample loading, were also investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed method was applied to the analysis of four carboxylic acid compounds and four PAHs in environmental water samples. Good linearities were obtained for all the tested compounds with R(2) larger than 0.9903. The limits of detection were found to be in the range of 0.0065-0.5 μg L(-1). The recovery values of spiked river water samples were from 63.2% to 112.3% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 10.1% (n = 4).

Silver nanoplate-decorated copper wire for the on-site microextraction and detection of perchlorate using a portable Raman spectrometer

Silver nanoplates were decorated on a copper wire for the on-site microextraction and detection of perchlorate using a portable Raman spectrometer.

Nitro-substituted 3,3′-bis(indolyl)methane-modified silica gel as a sorbent for solid-phase extraction of flavonoids

An Nbim-modified silica sorbent was synthesized and characterized for extraction of flavonoids.

Polyelectrolyte assembled graphene oxide coated silica composite as sorbent for solid-phase extraction of cinnamic acid and its derivatives

PDDA@GO@SiO₂ has been prepared and used as sorbent for solid-phase extraction of cinnamic acid and its derivatives.

Hydrophilic solid-phase extraction of melamine with ampholine-modified hybrid organic-inorganic silica material

In this work, an ampholine-functionalized hybrid organic-inorganic silica sorbent was successfully used to extract melamine from a milk formula sample by a hydrophilic interaction solid-phase extraction protocol. Primary factors affecting the extraction efficiency of the material such as extraction solvent, elution solvent, sample loading volume, and elution volume have been thoroughly optimized. Under the optimized hydrophilic solid-phase extraction conditions, the recoveries of melamine spiked in milk formula samples ranged from 86.2 to 101.8% with relative standard deviations of 4.1-9.4% (n = 3). The limit of detection (S/N = 3) was 0.32 μg/g. The adsorption capacity toward melamine was 30 μg of melamine per grams of sorbent. Due to its simplicity, rapidity and cost effectiveness, the newly developed hydrophilic solid-phase extraction method should provide a promising tool for daily monitoring of doped melamine in milk formula.