A tri-metal centered metal-organic framework for solid-phase microextraction of environmental contaminants with enhanced extraction efficiency

Abstract

This study presents the preparation and the characterizations of six tri-metal centered metal-organic frameworks (tM-MOFs) as solid-phase microextraction (SPME) adsorbents. Possessing different proportions of Al, Ga and In atoms in their frameworks, the tM-MOF-based SPME coatings exhibited different extraction performance towards the organic pollutants. Extraction results showed that the M4 (Al0.593Ga0.167In0.240(O2C2H4)(h2fipbb)) coating exhibited the best enrichment ability among six tM-MOFs. In addition, it showed better extraction efficiency towards the analytes than three single-metal centered MOFs coatings and a commercial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coating. The adsorption process of the M4 coating was physical adsorption and it was mainly affected by the diffusion process of the compound from the sample to the material, which is the same with the adsorption processes of the single-metal centered MOFs coatings. Under optimal conditions (extraction time, 3 min; NaCl concentration, 25% (w/v); desorption temperature, 270 °C; extraction temperature, 30 °C), the M4 coating achieved low detection limits (0.13–0.88 ng L−1) and good linearity (5–2000 and 5–5000 ng L−1) for benzene series compounds. The repeatabilities (n = 5) for single fiber were between 4.3 and 8.1%, while the reproducibilities (n = 3) of fiber-to-fiber were in the range of 7.9–12.7%. Finally, a M4 coated SPME fiber was successfully applied to the analysis of environmental water samples with satisfactory recoveries (80.8%–119.5%).