Development of amphiphilic hypercrosslinked porous polymers for magnetic extraction of multiple environmental pollutants in water

Abstract

Under the principle of similar compatibility, researchers have developed various polarity extractants corresponding to a class of chemicals. Separating different polarities chemicals with one extractant effectively has become a novel research trend in separation science. Given the complexity of environmental sample matrices and the significant differences in polarity and solubility of various compounds, the introduction of hydrophilic groups to hydrophobic material skeletons can lead to sorbents with hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) property and thus improve their extraction performance for substances with different polarities. In this work, a hypercrosslinked polymer (HCP_Pz-TPB), designated as HLB, was synthesized by incorporating polar pyrazine and nonpolar triphenylbenzene molecules within each other. Subsequently, a core-shell magnetic composite material was obtained by encapsulating magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in HCP_Pz-TPB. The material was applied as an adsorbent for magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) and combined with a high-performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) to enrich, separate, and detect seven polar contaminants in environmental water samples. The proposed approach, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@HCP_Pz-TPB−MSPE-HPLC-PDA, is characterized by its outstanding high sensitivity, low detection limits, wide linear range, and good reproducibility. The method demonstrated satisfactory linearity in the range of 0.05–2 μg mL^-1 with R² values between 0.9969 and 0.9997; the limits of detection (LOD) were observed to be within the range of 0.0019–0.016 μg L^-1, and limits of quantification (LOQ) was observed to be within the range of 0.0064–0.054 μg L^-1 range with good precision. The recoveries of the different contaminants in the environmental samples ranged from 83.61 to 116.46% (RSD≤10.56, n = 5). The new hydrophilic-lipophilic balance extractant is highly efficient, sensitive, and precise for extracting different polar pollutants. The findings demonstrate that the Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@HCP_Pz-TPB display a remarkable affinity for multiple targets, driven by complex interactions including multi-stackings and hydrogen bonding as a sorbent. The synthesized Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@HCP_Pz-TPB may be employed in diverse applications, including extraction, removal, and determination of diverse trace multi-target analytes in complex media.