Hierarchically porous adsorbent alginate beads incorporating poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) for dispersive liquid-solid phase extraction of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Abstract

A hierarchically porous composite was fabricated using magnetic alginate hydrogel beads impregnated with poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (HP-PEDOT@Fe3O4@AL). The fabricated beads were utilized in a dispersive liquid-solid phase extraction (DLSE) process to adsorb and enrich five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including pyrene (Py), benz[a]anthracene (BaA), benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF), benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and dibenz[a,h]anthracene (DahA). The developed method integrated liquid and solid phase extraction to improve extraction efficiency. The porous composite adsorbent was filled with 2-propanol to assist extraction. The fabricated adsorbent was characterized and parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of target PAHs were investigated. Under the best conditions, good linearity was achieved from 0.50 to 200.0 μg kg−1 for Py, BaA, and BbF, and from 1.0 to 200.0 μg kg−1 for BaP and DahA. The limits of detection ranged from 0.20 to 0.40 μg kg−1. When applied to determine PAHs in grilled meat samples, the target PAHs were extracted using sonication and diluted with deionized water before DLSE and determined by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The developed method achieved relative recoveries ranging from 81.5% to 99.4% with RSDs below 7%. In addition, the good stability of the composite adsorbent enabled reuse up to 9 times.