Preparation of sorbent based on porous monolith incorporated with graphene oxide nanosheets for stir cake sorptive extraction of strongly polar aromatic amines

Abstract

In this study, poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate/graphene oxide) (EDMA/GO) monolith was prepared by one-step in situ polymerization. The porous monolith was used for the first time as the sorbent of stir cake sorptive extraction (SCSE) for the preconcentration of strongly polar aromatic amines (AAs) from water samples. The effect of the content of EDMA and GO in the monolith on the extraction efficiencies was investigated in detail. The sorbent was characterized by elemental analysis, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. Analysis of polar AAs in environmental water samples by a combination of poly(EDMA/GO)-SCSE and HPLC with diode-array detection was selected as a paradigm for the practical application of the new sorbent. Under the optimal conditions, the limits of detection (S/N = 3.0) of the developed method for AAs ranged from 0.04 to 0.19 μg L⁻¹. Good reproducibility of the method was obtained as intra- and inter-day precisions, the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 4.0%. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of trace AAs in environmental water samples. The recoveries of AAs spiked in different matrices ranged from 74.2% to 105%, and RSDs of repeatability ranged from 1.6% to 9.6%.