Preparation of phenyl–boronic acid polymeric monolith by initiator-free ring-opening polymerization for microextraction of sulfonamides prior to their determination by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

In this study, a novel phenyl–boronic acid polymeric monolith (PBAPM) in polyether ether ketone (PEEK) tube was fabricated. The inner wall of PEEK tube was modified with mussel inspired polydopamine layer to firmly bond PBAPM, so as to avoid the outflow of PBAPM from PEEK tube and improve the service life and application scope of PBAPM. The PBAPM was synthesized by initiator-free ring-opening polymerization based on our previous work. The boric acid groups provided B–N coordination sites, as well as the hydrophobic amino and epoxy monomers provided hydrophobic interaction sites. Due to the synergistic effect of hydrophobic interaction and B–N coordination, the PBAPM exhibited excellent binding amounts for nitrogen-containing sulfonamides (SAs). In addition, the PBAPM possessed excellent stability, rigidity and permeability. Therefore, the PBAPM was used as solid phase microextraction (SPME) material for enrichment and separation of SAs from aqueous samples. The PBAPM SPME was optimized in detail, and combined with ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) analysis for simultaneous determination of 10 kinds of SAs from tap, lake and river water. Using only 1 mL of water samples, limit of quantitation of SAs could reach 0.54–4.5 ng L−1. Recoveries of standard spiked SAs from water samples were between 82.0% and 105.4%, with intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviation ranging from 3.3% to 5.6% and 4.2% to 8.1%, respectively. The PBAPM SPME combined with UPLC–MS/MS method shown better or similar recoveries, and used fewer samples than previous methods. These results demonstrated that the PBAPM could selectively separate and enrich ultra-trace nitrogen-containing SAs from aqueous samples.