p-AAB/MXene as a novel adsorbent and SALDI matrix for highly efficient enrichment and rapid MS detection of emerging environmental organic pollutants in beverages and PM2.5

Abstract

Due to the complicated sample matrix and low concentration, analysis of small-molecule emerging environmental pollutants generally required complex sample preparation and long instrumental detection. It guarantees the sensitivity but is not conducive to rapid screening. In this work, a p-aminoazobenzene (p-AAB) with excellent energy absorption capability was used to modify multilayer Ti₃C₂T_X (MXene) to prepare novel material p-AAB/MXene. The modification significantly improved the laser absorption of original material, and made p-AAB/MXene could be employed as matrix for surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (SALDI-TOF MS) analysis of small-molecule emerging pollutants. More importantly, p-AAB/MXene could be used as adsorbent to enrich target compounds, then directly sent to SALDI-TOF MS detection without any other sample pre-treatment. Dual characteristics of enrichment material and matrix made p-AAB/MXene-based SALDI-TOF MS method successfully be applied to rapid and accurate detection of emerging environmental pollutants, p-phenylenediamine-quinones (PPDQs) and diamide insecticides (DAIs), in food (beverage) and environmental (PM_2.5) samples. High sensitivity (LOD at ng mL^-1 level) and satisfactory precision (RSD < 11%) indicated the qualified analytical performance of developed approach. The determined concentrations also elucidated the broad occurrence of PPDQs and DAIs in beverages and PM_2.5. The results further confirmed the SALDI-TOF MS using p-AAB/MXene as both adsorbent and matrix had considerable potential for efficient and time-saving analysis of trace and ultra-trace small-molecule emerging environmental organic pollutants in complicated samples.