Fabrication of porous covalent organic frameworks as selective and advanced adsorbents for the on-line preconcentration of trace elements against the complex sample matrix

Abstract

Herein, for the first time, the typical porous Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) CTpBD with superior chemical stability and large surface area were applied as sorbents for solid phase extraction of trace ions via flow injection followed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) detection. The well-prepared and fully-characterized CTpBD COFs were filled in solid phase extraction cartridge as novel and robust adsorbents for element analysis. Separation and enrichment of Cr (III), Mn (II), Co (II), Ni (II), Cd (II), V (V), Cu (II), As (III), Se (IV), and Mo (VI) was then carried out, and the contents were measured by ICP-MS. Owing to the large surface area and instinctive porous structure of CTpBD, preconcentration of the target trace elements via COF-filled on-line SPE column has achieved low detection limits of 2.1-21.6ngL−1 along with a wide linearity range at 0.05–25μgL−1 for all target ions. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of 1.2%-4.3% obtained via 11 parallel determinations at the sample concentration of 100ngL−1 revealed excellent repeatability of the developed methods Our proposed methods have been successfully utilized for trace element analysis in environmental and food samples.