Electrospun cellulose acetate/polyacrylonitrile/thymol/Mg-metal organic framework nanofibers as efficient sorbent for pipette-tip micro-solid phase extraction of anti-cancer drugs

In this study, a novel cellulose acetate /polyacrylonitrile /thymol /Mg-metal organic framework composite electrospun nanofiber was developed as a sorbent in pipette-tip micro-solid phase extraction for the rapid and simultaneous extraction of three anti-cancer drugs, including Letrozole, Gefitinib, and Riluzole in human biological fluids before separation and quantification by high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet system. This nanosorbent was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive Xray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. Incorporating polyacrylonitrile, thymol, and Mg-MOF into the cellulose acetate network confers appreciable properties to the sorbent, such as good mechanical stability, increased resistance versus water and chemicals, high porosity, and significant extraction ability. Under the optimum conditions, the linearity was achieved in the range of 0.1-1500.0 mu g L-1 for Letrozole and Gefitinib, and 0.25-1500.0 mu g L-1 for Riluzole with correlation coefficients >= 0.9996. Low limit of detections (0.03-0.10 mu g L-1), method detection limit (0.07 mu g L-1), and limit of quantifications (0.10-0.33 mu g L-1) with low relative standard deviations (<= 6.6% for intra-day and <= 8.2% for inter-day), were also obtained. Eventually, this method was successfully used to extract the mentioned analytes from the biological samples with acceptable relative recoveries (80.4-94.4%, relative standard deviations = 5.0-8.7%).

Automated summary

In this study, a novel nanofiber was developed as a sorbent for micro-solid phase extraction and successfully used for the rapid and simultaneous extraction of three anti-cancer drugs. The sorbent exhibited good mechanical stability, high porosity, and significant extraction ability.