Highly efficient amino-functionalized aluminum-based metal organic frameworks mesoporous nanorods for selective extraction of hydrocortisone in pharmaceutical wastewater

Hydrocortisone (HC), as a common steroid hormone drug, is also one of the key intermediates involved in the synthesis of multiple steroid hormone drugs. Residual HC in pharmaceutical wastewater frequently pollutes environmental water as steroid hormone contaminant and possesses great threat to human health as well as sustainable development of the ecosystem. Herein, in order to develop a highly efficient adsorbent system for selective enrichment and detection of HC in pharmaceutical wastewater, a novel amino-functionalized aluminum-based metal organic frameworks (Al-MOFs@NH₂) mesoporous nanorod is fabricated, in which 2-aminoterephthalic acid plays a dual role as organic linker and functional modification unit. The resultant Al-MOFs@NH₂ not only exhibits stable mesoporous structure but also has large specific surface area (849.76 m² g^-1) and plentiful binding sites, which significantly increases the adsorption capacity for HC. Under the promotion of hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction together, Al-MOFs@NH₂ possesses high adsorption capacity (218.53 mg g^-1) for HC, as well as shows satisfactory selectivity for HC and other steroid hormones. Moreover, a method using Al-MOFs@NH₂ as solid phase extraction adsorbents combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been developed to specifically enrich and detect trace amount of HC in pharmaceutical wastewater. The developed method has a low limit of detection (LOD) (0.5×10^-3 μg mL^-1) and shows satisfactory recoveries for HC (75.9%-102.5%) with an acceptable relative standard deviation (RSD). These results demonstrate that the facile one-step preparation and excellent adsorption capacity makes Al-MOFs@NH₂ attractive to capture and remove environmental steroid hormone pollutants. More importantly, the method proposed in this work is expected to provide a prospective solution for analysis of strong bioactive contaminants in pharmaceutical wastewater.