Poly-(ionic liquid) coated with magnetic nanoparticles for micro solid phase extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in food samples

Abstract

Poly(methyl methacrylate-vinyl imidazole bromide) (poly-MMA-IL)-grafted magnetic nanoparticles were successfully developed and applied in the micro-magnetic solid phase extraction (μ-MSPE) for 16 types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from tea, fried food, and grilled food samples via gas chromatography flame ionization detector (GC-FID). One variable at a time (OVAT) and response surface methodology (RSM) were used for efficient optimization. The validation method showed a good coefficient of determination (R²) ranging from 0.9901 to 0.9982 (n = 3) with linearity of 0.2 μg L⁻¹–500 μg L⁻¹. Detection and quantification limits were 0.06 µg L⁻¹–0.32 µg L⁻¹ and 0.18 µg L⁻¹–0.97 µg L⁻¹. Additionally, satisfactory reproducibility was attained with intra-day and inter-day precisions having RSD ranges of 3.6%–11.1%. The spiked recovery value of 16 PAHs in fried food, grilled food and tea samples obtained from the night market in Malaysia ranged from 80%–12%, respectively.

Keywords:

• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
• μ-MSPE
• GC-FID

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the Ministry of Higher Education for the financial support provided through the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS/1/2020/STG04/UM/02/9), as well as the Department of Chemistry and Faculty of Science at the University of Malaya for providing the necessary facilities. Additionally, the authors would like to express their appreciation to the University of Sains Malaysia for their collaboration in this research.

Disclosure statement

The authors state that they do not have any known conflicts of interest or personal relationships that might have influenced the work described in this article.