3D flower-liked Fe3O4/C for highly sensitive magnetic dispersive solid-phase extraction of four trace non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

A low cost-effective and simple synthesis method was adopted to acquire three-dimensional flower-like structure Fe3O4/C that has large specific area, suitable pore structure and sufficient saturation magnetism. The obtained Fe3O4/C exhibits outstanding preconcentration ability and was applied to extracting non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs from complex environmental and biological samples. The parameters of magnetic solid-phase extraction were optimized by univariate and multivariate methods (Box-Behnken design). The high degree of linearity from 2.5 to 1000.0 ng mL(-1) (R-2 >= 0.9976), the limits of detection from 0.25 to 0.5 ng mL(- 1) (S/N =3), and the limits of quantitation from 1.0 to 2.0 ng mL(- 1) (S/N =10) were yielded by adopting this novel method after the optimization. Moreover, the recoveries of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs from 89.6 to 107.0% were acquired in spiked plasma, urine and lake samples. In addition, the adsorption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on Fe3O4/C was explored by adsorption isotherms and kinetic studies. Furthermore, the adsorption mechanism for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs by Fe3O4/C was proposed, which was hydrogen bonding and - interaction between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and Fe3O4/C.

Automated summary

A low cost-effective synthesis method was used to obtain Fe3O4/C with three-dimensional flower-like structure, large specific area, suitable pore structure, and sufficient saturation magnetism. This material showed outstanding preconcentration ability for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in complex samples, with optimized parameters achieving high linearity, low limits of detection and quantitation, and good recovery rates. The adsorption mechanism of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on Fe3O4/C was proposed to involve hydrogen bonding and π-π interactions.