Phytic acid-stabilized super-amphiphilic Fe3O4-graphene oxide for extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from vegetable oils

Phytic acid-stabilized Fe3O4-graphene oxide (GOPA@Fe3O4) was assembled by microwave-enhanced hydrothermal synthesis and super-amphipathicity was demonstrated by measurement of dynamic oil and water contact angles. GOPA@Fe3O4 was used as a sorbent for enrichment of eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from vegetable oils by magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE). The extraction desorption factors were systematically investigated and, under optimum conditions, the super-amphiphilic sorbent achieved wide linear ranges (0.2-200 ng g(-1)), satisfactory precision (3.44-6.64% for intra-day and 5.39-8.41% for inter-day) and low limits of detection (LODa, 0.06-0.15 ng g(-1),) for PAHs. Excellent recoveries (85.6-102.3%) for spiked PAHs were obtained with genuine vegetable oil samples. These results indicate that MSPE using GOPA@Fe3O4 as the sorbent, coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), is an efficient and simple method for the detection of low concentrations of PAHs in vegetable oils. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.