Nanomaterials as sorbents for food sample analysis

The discovery of nanomaterials has bestowed a great impact in the improvement and development of many disciplines, including Analytical Chemistry, as a result of their particular properties that result highly adequate for an extensive variety of applications. Among them, metal-organic frameworks, magnetic and non-magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and graphene, as well as their combinations, are the most important nanomaterials that have been used up to now, especially in sorbent-based extraction techniques. Many of them have been demonstrated to be highly appropriate for the extraction of a wide variety of analytes even from highly complex samples like foods. This review article is aimed at summarizing the most recent applications of such nanomaterials in food analysis. Particular attention has been paid to provide a general vision of the wide variety of sorbents that are currently being developed in this field. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.