Application of Nanocube-Functionalized Nitrogen-Doped Melamine Sponge for Dispersive Micro-Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) of Phenolic Compounds From Aquatic Media

Abstract

A procedure is reported for the efficient extraction and determination of phenolics from aqueous media. The approach is based on the dispersive micro-solid phase extraction using synthesized Co₃O₄ nanocube-functionalized nitrogen-doped melamine foam. The adsorption and desorption conditions were optimized by response surface methodology and one-variable-at-a-time approaches. The proposed method was fully validated. Under the optimized conditions, the limits of detection were lower than 0.5 ng mL⁻¹. Calibration curves were linear in the range from 1.0 to 250.0 ng mL⁻¹, 0.7 to 200.0 ng mL⁻¹, 0.2 to 250.0 ng mL⁻¹, and 1.0 to 250.0 ng mL⁻¹ for phenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, and pentachlorophenol, respectively. Enrichment factors and absolute recoveries from 17.5 to 20.7 and 70% to 83% were achieved. The method was successfully applied for trace monitoring of the analytes in environmental and industrial water samples with gas chromatography—flame ionization detection analysis. Satisfactory relative recoveries between 89.0% and 105.8% were obtained along with acceptable precision below 8.1%. This method is a simple, rapid, sensitive, and reliable protocol for efficient screening of the phenolics.

Keywords:

• Chlorophenols
• dispersive micro-solid phase extraction (DµSPE)
• environmental and industrial water samples
• gas chromatography—flame ionization detection (GC-FID)
• melamine sponge
• nanocube

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.