Porphyrin-based covalent organic framework coated stainless steel fiber for solid-phase microextraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water and soil samples

Supramolecular Materials as Solid-Phase Microextraction Coatings in Environmental Analysis

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) has been widely proposed for the extraction, clean-up, and preconcentration of analytes of environmental concern. Enrichment capabilities, preconcentration efficiency, sample throughput, and selectivity in extracting target compounds greatly depend on the materials used as SPME coatings. Supramolecular materials have emerged as promising porous coatings to be used for the extraction of target compounds due to their unique selectivity, three-dimensional framework, flexible design, and possibility to promote the interaction between the analytes and the coating by means of multiple oriented functional groups. The present review will cover the state of the art of the last 5 years related to SPME coatings based on metal organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and supramolecular macrocycles used for environmental applications.

Nanofibrous Porous Organic Polymers and Their Derivatives: From Synthesis to Applications

Engineering porous organic polymers (POPs) into 1D morphology holds significant promise for diverse applications due to their exceptional processability and increased surface contact for enhanced interactions with guest molecules. This article reviews the latest developments in nanofibrous POPs and their derivatives, encompassing porous organic polymer nanofibers, their composites, and POPs-derived carbon nanofibers. The review delves into the design and fabrication strategies, elucidates the formation mechanisms, explores their functional attributes, and highlights promising applications. The first section systematically outlines two primary fabrication approaches of nanofibrous POPs, i.e., direct bulk synthesis and electrospinning technology. Both routes are discussed and compared in terms of template utilization and post-treatments. Next, performance of nanofibrous POPs and their derivatives are reviewed for applications including water treatment, water/oil separation, gas adsorption, energy storage, heterogeneous catalysis, microwave absorption, and biomedical systems. Finally, highlighting existent challenges and offering future prospects of nanofibrous POPs and their derivatives are concluded.

Recent progress of covalent organic frameworks as attractive materials for solid-phase microextraction: A review

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a green, environmentally friendly, and efficient technique for sample pre-treatment. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), a class of porous materials formed by covalent bonds, have gained prominence owing to their remarkable attributes, including large specific surface area, tunable pore size, and robust thermal/chemical stability. These characteristics have made COFs highly appealing as potential coatings for SPME fiber over the past decades. In this review, various methods used to prepare SPME coatings based on COFs are presented. These methods encompass physical adhesion, sol-gel processes, in situ growth, and chemical cross-linking strategies. In addition, the applications of COF-based SPME coating fibers for the preconcentration of various targets in environmental, food, and biological samples are summarized. Moreover, not only their advantages but also the challenges they pose in practical applications are highlighted. By shedding light on these aspects, this review aims to contribute to the continued development and utilization of COF materials in the field of sample pretreatment.

Boronic acid-functionalized magnetic porphyrin-based covalent organic framework for selective enrichment of cis-diol-containing nucleosides

In this study, a novel boronic acid-functionalized magnetic porphyrin-based covalent organic framework (COF) with a core-shell structure was designed and synthesized for the selective enrichment and detection of nucleosides. Firstly, brominated porphyrin-based COF was in situ grown on Fe3O4-NH2 nanospheres (denoted as Fe3O4@Br-COF), then a post-synthetic modification strategy was used to introduce boronic acid into the framework via Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction to obtain boronic acid functionalized magnetic COF (denoted as Fe3O4@BA-COF). Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling possesses the advantages of mild synthesis conditions, high tolerance to functionalities, and ease of handling and separation, which is considered as a promising candidate for functionalizing COF. It is worth mentioning that the porphyrin-based COF possesses a unique nitrogen-rich skeleton and "trap" structure formed by four pyrrole rings, which can provide hydrogen bond and make it more suitable for trapping analytes than other types of COF. The boronic acid group provides boronate affinity, which enables better selective enrichment of cis-diol-containing nucleoside. The morphology and structure of the prepared Fe3O4@BA-COF was characterized by various methods. Based on the Fe3O4@BA-COF, a facile magnetic solid phase extraction coupled with high performance liquid chromatography method (MSPE-HPLC) was used to extract and detect adenosine, guanosine, uridine, and cytidine in urine samples. This work not only provides a mild and feasible post-synthetic modification method for fabrication of boronic acid-functionalized magnetic COF, but also provides an efficient and rapid method to selectively enrich and detect hydrophilic nucleosides.

Covalent organic framework in situ grown on the metal-organic framework as fiber coating for solid-phase microextraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in tea

A novel MIL-88-NH2@COF composite was produced by in situ growth of covalent organic framework (COF) on the metal-organic framework (MOF) surface. To obtain a coating fiber for solid-phase microextraction (SPME), the MIL-88-NH2@COF composite physically adhered to the stainless steel wire. Combined with gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID), various analytes such as chlorophenols (CPs), phthalates (PAEs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were extracted and determined to evaluate the extraction performance of MIL-88-NH2@COF coated fibers and explore their extraction mechanism. This composite exhibit excellent extraction performance and adsorption capacity for various analytes, especially for PAHs with enrichment factor up to 9858. The SPME-GC-FID method based on MIL-88-NH2@COF fiber was established for the determination of five PAHs after the main extraction conditions were optimized. Under optimal conditions, the proposed technique showed a wide linear range (1-150 ng mL-1) with a low limit of detection (0.019 ng mL-1) and a high coefficient of determination (R2 > 0.99). The developed SPME-GC-FID method was used to determine PAHs in green tea and black tea samples, with good recoveries of 51.70-103.64% and 68.56-103.64%, respectively. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time MIL-88-NH2@COF composites have been prepared and applied to SPME. The preparation method of the composite provides a new idea in adsorbent preparation, which will contribute to the field of SPME.

A Zn-based metal coordination cluster Zn5 used for solid phase microextraction of ten phenolic compounds from water and soil

Exploring coating materials with superior extraction efficiency has always been the pursuit in the field of solid phase microextraction (SPME). Metal coordination clusters with high thermal and chemical stability, abundant functional groups as active adsorption site are the promising coatings. In the study, a Zn₅(H₂Lⁿ)₆(NO₃)₄ (Zn₅, H₃Lⁿ =(1,2-bis-(benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-ethenol) cluster coating was prepared and applied for SPME of ten phenols. Zn₅ based SPME fiber exhibited high extraction efficiencies for phenols in headspace (HS) mode, which circumvented the pollution of SPME fiber. The adsorption isotherm and theoretical calculation indicated the adsorption mechanism of phenols on Zn₅ was hydrophobic interaction, H-bond interaction and π-π stacking. Under the optimized extraction conditions, an HS-SPME-GC-MS/MS method was developed for the determination of ten phenols in water and soil samples. For ten phenolic compounds in water and soil samples, the linear ranges were 0.5-5000 ng/L and 0.5-250 ng/g, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs, S/N = 3) were 0.010-1.20 ng/L and 0.0048-0.16 ng/g, respectively. The precisions of single fiber and fiber-to-fiber were lower than 9.0% and 14.1%, respectively. The proposed method was applied for the detection of ten phenolic compounds in various water and soil samples, showing satisfactory recovery (72.1-118.8%). This study delivered a novel and efficient SPME coating material for the extraction of phenols.

In situ growth of porous organic framework on iron wire for microextraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

In this work, a novel spherical metal organic framework (MOF) was first in situ grown on the surface of iron wire (IW), in which IW served as the substrate and metal source for MOF (type NH₂-MIL88) growth without adding additional metal salts in the process, while spherical NH₂-MIL88 provided more active sites for further construction of multifunctional composites. Subsequently, a covalent organic framework (COF) was covalently bonded to the surface of the NH₂-MIL88 to obtain the IW@NH₂-MIL88@COF fibers, which were used for headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in milk samples prior to determination by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID). Compared with the fiber prepared by physical coating, the IW@NH₂-MIL88@COF fiber prepared by in situ growth and covalent bonding exhibits better stability and possesses more uniform layer. The extraction mechanism of the IW@NH₂-MIL88@COF fiber for PAHs was discussed, which mainly owed to π-π interactions and hydrophobic interactions. After optimization of the primary extraction conditions, the SPME-GC-FID method was established for five PAHs with a wide linear range (1-200 ng mL^-1), good linearity coefficient (0.9935-0.9987) and low detection limits (0.017-0.028 ng mL^-1). The relative recoveries for PAHs detection in milk samples ranged from 64.69 to 113.97%. This work not only provides new ideas for the in situ growth of other types of MOF, but also provides new methods for the construction of multifunctional composites.

[Advances in enrichment and separation of cis-diol-containing compounds by porous organic frameworks]

The design and synthesis of boronate affinity materials that show high efficiency, high selectivity, and high enrichment performance have gained significant attention. The principle of boronate affinity relies on the reversible covalent reactions, including the formation of stable five-membered or six-membered cyclic esters with cis-diol-containing compounds in alkaline aqueous media and dissociation of cyclic esters in an acidic surrounding to release cis-diol-containing compounds. Recently, various boronate affinity materials have been synthesized and utilized for selective enrichment of these compounds. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been widely used in chromatographic separation and sample pretreatment because of their adjustable pore size, high porosity, high specific surface area, tunable skeleton structure, and favorable chemical and thermal stability. To promote the enrichment selectivity of MOFs and COFs for cis-diol-containing compounds, boronic acid-functionalized MOFs and COFs with various structures and categories have been synthesized. This review summarizes more than 80 investigations into the categories, synthetic strategies, and applications of boronic acid-functionalized MOFs and COFs from the Science Citation Index. These synthesis methods include metal ligand-fragment co-assembly, post-synthetic modification, and bottom-up modification of boronic acid-functionalized porous materials. Although two modification strategies (post-synthetic and metal ligand-fragment co-assembly) have been introduced for the preparation of boronic acid-functionalized MOFs, the latter is more commonly adopted as it improves the enrichment selectivity and enrichment efficiency of MOFs. The common limitations of MOFs such as aggregation and aperture issues were also resolved. Boron affinity MOFs possessing favorable properties according to the characteristics of cis-diol-containing compounds, have also been synthesized. Furthermore, to facilitate enrichment and separation, many boronic acid-functionalized magnetic material MOFs have been developed for the enrichment and analysis of cis-diol-containing compounds. Additionally, the luminescent properties of Ln-MOFs have been used in combination with boronic acid affinity for the enrichment, separation, and subsequent detection of cis-diol-containing compounds. Post-synthetic modification and the bottom-up strategy are the primary methods for the preparation of boronic acid-functionalized COFs. Boronic acid-functionalized COFs are less investigated than boronic acid-functionalized MOFs, likely due to the greater complexity of COF synthesis. This work aims to summarize the research advances, synthesis ideas, and synthesis methods related to boric acid-functionalized porous organic frameworks, which will provide theoretical guidance and technical support for its applications while accelerating the commercialization of such organic frameworks.

Preparation of a new coating of graphene oxide/nickel complex on a nickelized metal surface for direct immersion solid phase microextraction of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Background

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is a versatile sampling and sample preparation technology that possess a significant application in the extraction and pre-concentration of a broad range of micro-pollutants from different kind of matrices. Selection and preparation of an appropriate fiber substrate and coating materials have always been the main challenges of the SPME procedure. This paper introduces a high-efficiency metal-based SPME fiber with a new chemical coating of nickel/graphene oxide/nickel tetraazamacrocyclic complex (Ni/GO/NiTAM).

Result

The Ni/GO/NiTAM sorbent was electroless deposited onto the surface of an aluchrom (Alu) wire, and then the prepared fiber was employed for the extraction and pre-concentration of some PAHs before their HPLC–UV analysis. The prepared fiber characterization data were assessed using FE-SEM, EDX, XRD, FT-IR, and BET techniques. The method validation parameters, including the linearity range (LRs: 0.10 to 200.0 µg L⁻¹), the limit of detection (LODs: 0.03‒0.30 µg L⁻¹), and the limit of quantification (LOQs: 0.10–1.00 µg L⁻¹), under optimal conditions. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of intra-day, inter-day, and single fiber repeatability (for the samples spiked at 25 µg L^‒1) were in the range of 0.32–2.94, 1.20–4.09, and 1.42‒4.39%, respectively. In addition, the technique recoveries (RR %) and enrichment factors (EF) were in the range of 83.10‒107.80% and 83–164, respectively.

Conclusion

The fiber fabrication was simple, and the applied materials were also economical and easily accessible. Alu metal has high physicochemical and mechanical stability and thus can be a good alternative for the substrate of the fragile commercial SPME fibers. High rigidity and durability, long service life, and high extraction capability are some of the other advantages of the offered fiber.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13065-021-00783-w.