Graphene oxide/Fe3O4 as sorbent for magnetic solid-phase extraction coupled with liquid chromatography to determine 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene in water samples

Abstract

A fast, simple, economical, and environmentally friendly magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) procedure has been developed to preconcentrate 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) from water samples prior to determination by liquid chromatography-UV-Vis employing graphene oxide/Fe3O4 nanocomposite as sorbent. The nanocomposite synthesis was investigated, and the MSPE was optimized by a multivariate approach. The optimum MSPE conditions were 40 mg of nanocomposite, 10 min of vortex extraction, 1 mL of acetonitrile as eluent, and 6 min of desorption in an ultrasonic bath. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the method was evaluated to obtain a preconcentration factor of 153. The linearity of the method was studied from 1 to 100 μg L−1 (N = 5), obtaining a correlation coefficient of 0.994. The relative standard deviation and limit of detection were found to be 12% (n = 6, 10 μg L−1) and 0.3 μg L−1, respectively. The applicability of the method was investigated, analyzing three types of water samples (i.e., reservoir and drinking water and effluent wastewater) and recovery values ranged between 87 and 120% (50 μg L−1 spiking level), showing that the matrix had a negligible effect upon extraction. Finally, the semiquantitative Eco-Scale metrics confirmed the greenness of the developed method.