A magnetic hierarchical molecularly imprinted polymer nanocomposite adsorbent embedded with a zinc oxide carbon foam for the extraction of sulfonamides

Abstract

This thesis aimed to develop a hierarchical nanocomposite adsorbent incorporated a zinc oxide and carbon foam embedded in a magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (ZnO@CF@Fe3O4-SiO2-NH2@MIP). The adsorbent was utilized for the extraction and determination of sulfonamides. The fabricated adsorbent was characterized, the fabrication and extraction conditions were optimized and the extracted sulfonamides were determined using high performance liquid chromatography. The zinc oxide carbon foam helps to improve the adsorption of sulfonamides. The molecularly imprinted polymer provided highly specific recognition cavities for three sulfonamides and the magnetic material enabled the rapid isolation of the adsorbent after adsorption and desorption. Under optimum conditions, the developed method provided a good linearity from 2.0 to 150.0 g L-1 with the coefficient of determination better than 0.995. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 2.0 and 5.0 g L-1 , respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to determine sulfonamides in milk and water samples with extraction recoveries between 84.3 and 96.2 % and RSDs lower than 7 %. The advantages of the developed nanocomposite adsorbent are high specificity and extraction efficiency, simplicity and convenience, and good stability that enables reuse.