Magnetic Solid Phase Extraction Based on Modified Magnetite Nanoparticles Coupled with Dispersive Liquid–Liquid Microextraction as an Efficient Method for Simultaneous Extraction of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Drugs

Abstract

In this work, surfactant-coated Fe3O4@decanoic acid nanoparticles was synthesized as a viable nanosorbent for coextraction of drugs with different polarities (hydrophobic, hydrophilic). To reach desirable enrichment factors, efficient clean-up and low limits of detection (LODs), the method was combined with dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME). The coupling of these extraction methods with GC-FID detection was applied to simultaneous extraction and quantification of venlafaxine (VLF) as a hydrophilic model drug and desipramine (DESI) and clomipramine (CLO) as hydrophobic model drugs in urine samples. The effect of sample pH, nanosorbent amount, sorption time, surfactant concentration, eluent type, eluent volume, salt content, elution time in magnetic solid phase extraction step and extraction solvent and its volume along with sample pH in DLLME step were optimized. Under the selected conditions, linearity was achieved within the range of 5–5000 µg L−1. The LOD values were obtained in the range of 1.5–3.0 µg L−1 for DESI, 1.2–2.5 µg L−1 for VLF and 2.0–4.0 µg L−1 for CLO, respectively. The percent of extraction recoveries and relative standard deviations (n = 5) were in the range of 82.4–95.9 and 6.1 for DESI, 60.5–92.8 and 6.9 for VLF and 57.2–58.0 and 5.5 for CLO, respectively. Ultimately, the applicability of the new method was successfully confirmed by the extraction and quantification of DESI, VLF and CLO from human urine samples.