Development of Fe3O4/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite-based dispersive solid-phase extraction for the quantification of five steroid hormones

Aim: An accurate and sensitive analytical method was proposed to detect some steroid hormones in biological samples. Materials & methods: An Fe3O4/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite-based dispersive solid-phase extraction was developed for the effective and simple preconcentration of steroid hormones from human serum samples. Results & conclusion: The nanocomposite was firstly used as adsorbent to simultaneously extract the selected hormones. Limit of detection values for the selected hormones were calculated between 5.5 and 39.2 ng/kg (mass based). An artificial serum sample was used to test the applicability and accuracy of the developed method; percentage recovery results obtained from two different spiked concentrations were found to be in the range of 80.5-99.9%.

Automated summary

This study proposes an accurate and sensitive analytical method for detecting some steroid hormones in biological samples. An Fe3O4/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite-based dispersive solid-phase extraction technique is developed for the effective and simple preconcentration of the hormones. The nanocomposite is used as an adsorbent to simultaneously extract the selected hormones. The detection limit values for the hormones are calculated to be between 5.5 and 39.2 ng/kg (mass based). The applicability and accuracy of the method are tested using an artificial serum sample, and the percentage recovery results range from 80.5% to 99.9% for two different spiked concentrations.