Determination of sulfadimethoxine in milk with aptamer-functionalized Fe3O4/graphene oxide as magnetic solid-phase extraction adsorbent prior to HPLC

An aptamer (Apt) functionalized magnetic material was prepared by covalently link Apt to Fe 3 O 4 /graphene oxide (Fe 3 O 4 /GO) composite by 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride and N -hydroxysuccinimide, and then characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and vibration sample magnetometry. The obtained composite of Fe 3 O 4 /GO/Apt was employed as magnetic solid-phase extraction adsorbent for the selective preconcentration of sulfadimethoxine prior to analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography. Under the optimal conditions (sample pH of 4.0, sorbent dosage of 20 mg, extraction time of 3 h, and methanol-5% acetic acid solution as eluent), a good linear relationship was obtained between the peak area and concentration of sulfadimethoxine in the range of 5.0 to 1500.0 µg/L with correlation coefficient of 0.9997. The limit of detection ( S/N = 3) was 3.3 µg/L. The developed method was successfully applied to the analysis of sulfadimethoxine in milk with recoveries in the range of 75.9-92.3% and relative standard deviations less than 8.1%. The adsorption mechanism of Fe 3 O 4 /GO/Apt toward sulfadimethoxine was studied through the adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms, and the results show that the adsorption process fits well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the adsorbate on Fe 3 O 4 /GO/Apt is multilayer and heterogeneous.