Nanoleaf-derived carbon materials as a sensitivity coating for solid‑phase microextraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Metal–organic framework-derived carbon materials have shown extensive application in the sensitive extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), but more active sites for its adsorption were still a tireless pursuit. In this study, ZIF-nanoleaf-derived carbon (NLCs) was synthesized and developed as a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber (NLCs-F). The extraction performance was compared with ZIF-dodecahedron-derived carbon (DHCs) coated fiber (DHCs-F), which was prepared by only changing the ratio of the reactants. The unique morphology of NLCs provided abundant adsorption active sites for the selected PAHs, while the large average aperture facilitated selective extraction of high molecular weight analytes. Additionally, the high carbon content enhanced the strong enrichment capability for hydrophobic PAHs. Hence, the prepared NLCs-F coupled with GC–MS showed a good correlation coefficient (0.9975) in a wide linear range, low limits of detection (0.3–1.8 ng L −1 ), satisfactory repeatability, and reproducibility, which made it apply in the enrichment of PAHs in actual tea and coffee samples. Graphical abstract