Bacteria-templated ZIF-8 embedded in polyacrylonitrile nanofibers as a novel sorbent for thin film microextraction of benzoylurea insecticides

In the present work, the rod-like ZIF-8 (ZIF8@E coli) was prepared by fast, easy and environmentally friendly method of biomimetic mineralization with Escherichia coli bacteria as a bio-template and was exploited for the first time in the microextraction. In this regard, electrospun nanofiber mats of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and ZIF8@E coli were prepared by electrospinning method and used as a new sorbent for thin film microextraction (TFME) of benzoylurea insecticides such as Hexaflumuron and Teflubenzuron as model analytes. The PAN/ ZIF8@E coli nanocomposite was characterized using electron scanning microscopy and various spectroscopy techniques. Factors affecting the proposed extraction method were screened and optimized using the experiment design strategy. Then, the model analytes were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet (UV) detector after microextraction. Satisfactory figures of merit were obtained for suggested TFME-HPLC-UV under optimum conditions. The suitable linearity varied in the range of 0.5-200 mu g L-1 with R2 greater than 0.9968. The limit of detections for Hexaflumuron and Teflubenzuron were 0.12 and 0.15 mu g L-1, respectively. The application of the method in the real sample was investigated by analyzing the selected ana-lytes in environmental water and food samples. The spiking recovery of the selected analytes varied in the range of 93.0-109.8 % (RSD <= 7.68). The results confirm the efficient application of this new sorbent in TFME approach. Considering the high availability, ease of production, and environmental friendliness of bacteria along with the significant improvement of metal-organic framework (MOF) growth efficiency, biomimetic mineralization is expected to be efficient method for the synthesis of ordered MOFs for use in extraction fields.

Automated summary

In this study, rod-like ZIF-8 was prepared using Escherichia coli bacteria as a bio-template and used for microextraction. A new sorbent was prepared using electrospun nanofiber mats and demonstrated satisfactory performance in the analysis of benzoylurea insecticides. The extraction method was optimized using experimental design strategy, and the model analytes were detected using high-performance liquid chromatography.