Preparation of a Magnetic Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube-Gold Nanoparticle Hybrid Material for the Efficient Extraction of Triazine Herbicides from Rice

A facile and efficient analytical method for determination of four triazine herbicides (atrazine, ametryn, terbutryn, and terbuthylazine) from rice was developed by employing a magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotube-gold nanoparticle material (mMWCNT@Au) as the solid-phase extraction adsorbent, followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) detection. The mMWCNT@Au was fabricated based on a simple solvothermal reduction method. The prepared material was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Parameters influencing the extraction efficiency (the type and volume of extraction solvent, mass of mMWCNT@Au, extraction time, volume of desorption solvent and desorption time) were systematically investigated and optimized. Under the optimal extraction and determination conditions, the calibration curves were linear over the concentration range of 2.5 to 1000 mu g kg(-1) with correlation coefficients in the range of 0.9980 to 0.9998. The limits of detection for atrazine, ametryn, terbutryn, and terbuthylazine were 1.05, 0.97, 1.19, and 1.22 mu g kg(-1), respectively. The intra-day and inter-day recoveries were in the ranges from 88.3 to 105.4% and 88.2 to 101.8%, respectively. The relative standard deviations ranged from 4.3 to 9.0% and 4.5 to 9.1%, respectively. The proposed method has been shown to be a reliable alternative approach for the determination of triazine herbicides in rice samples.