One-pot fabrication of task specific magnetic adsorbent for the efficient isolation and capture of liquid-crystal monomers pollutants in waters prior to chromatographic quantification

Abstract

BackgroundLiquid crystal monomers (LCMs) have been classified as emerging organic pollutants. Efficient isolation and extraction is a critical step in the determination, and then knowing the occurrence and distribution of LCMs in environmental waters. However, the reported sample preparation techniques still suffer some dilemmas such as using large amount of organic solvent, low extraction capacity, tedious operation procedure and employment of expensive extraction column. To circumvent the disadvantages, new extraction format and adsorbent with quickness, less consumption of organic solvent, superior extraction performance and low cost should be developed for the analysis of LCMs. ResultsUsing 1H,1H,2H,2H-heptadecafluorodecyl acrylate and 9-vinylanthracene as mixed functional monomers, a task specific magnetic adsorbent (TSMA) was prepared by one-pot hydrothermal technique for the highly efficient capture of LCMs under magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) format. Due to the abundant functional groups, the developed TSMA/MSPE presented satisfactory capture performance towards LCMs. Satisfactory enrichment factors (132–212) and high adsorption capacity (18 mg/g) were obtained. Additionally, the relevant adsorption mechanism was studied by the combination of density functional theory calculation and experiments about adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherm. Under the beneficial conditions, a sensitive and reliable method for the monitoring of studied LCMs in environmental waters was established by the combination of TSMA/MSPE with HPLC equipped with diode array detector (DAD). The achieved limits of detection and spiked recoveries were 0.0025–0.0061 μg/L and 81.0–112 %, respectively. Finally, the developed method was employed to monitor LCMs levels in the North Creek watershed of Jiulong River. Significance and noveltyThe current study provided a new adsorbent for quick and efficient capture of LCMs at trace levels. In addition, a sensitive, reliable and anti-intereference method for the monitoring of trace LCMs in actual waters was established. Moreover, for the first, the contents, occurrence and distribution of LCMs in North Creek watershed was investigated based on the developed method.