Preparation of a monolith functionalized with zinc oxide nanoparticles and its application in the enrichment of fluoroquinolone antibiotics

This study describes the enrichment ability of ZnO-modified methacrylic acid-co-ethylene dimethacrylate polymer monoliths as stationary phases for the simultaneous determination of antibiotics (ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enoxacin, and pefloxacin) combined with high-performance liquid chromatography. The prepared monolith was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The polymer monolith microextraction method has been applied to the enrichment of fluoroquinolone antibiotics and satisfactory results were obtained in the analysis of water samples. Compared with the conventional methacrylic acid based monolith, the developed monolith exhibited a higher enrichment capacity because of the introduction of zinc oxide into the preparation process.