Evaluation of oxidized buckypaper as material for the solid phase extraction of cobalamins from milk: Its efficacy as individual and support sorbent of a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance copolymer

This work describes a new analytical method for the determination of four cobalamins (adenosylcobalamin (AdoCbl), methylcobalamin (MeCbl), hydroxocobalamin (OHCbl) and cyanocobalamin (CNCbl)) in cow's milk. The extraction procedure is fast and based on dilution/protein precipitation of a milk sample with 50 mM sodium acetate buffer (pH 4.6), followed by solid phase extraction (SPE) of the filtered supernatant. Relative recoveries higher than 60% have been obtained for all the cobalamins by combining two different types of sorbents in the same SPE cartridge: two disks of buckypaper (BP), a nanoporous felt composed of oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), separated by a Teflon fit from OASIS HLB (500 mg), a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance copolymer. Before its use as sorbent, BP was characterized in terms of porosity, permeability, surface area, specific adsorption capacity and tested for a potential reuse after adequate chemical regeneration. The analysis of the extracts was performed by liquid chromatography (LC) coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) on an analytical C-18 column in less than 10 min. After validation, the method was applied to the determination of the natural content of the four B-12 homologues in cow's milk samples, providing data lacking in the literature. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.