Enhancing enrichment ability of a nanoporous carbon based solid-phase microextraction device by a morphological modulation strategy

Recent works of designing excellent adsorbents emphasized on the specific surface areas and porosities of the materials. This study presents the influence of morphological modulation on extraction efficiencies of materials for the first time. Sea urchin-like nanoporous carbon (NPC), derived from metal organic framework (MOF), was synthesized and fabricated as solid phase microextraction (SPME) device. The morphological modulated structure of the NPC, with enhanced effective adsorption sites produced by the pointed and sharp edges, could improve the extraction efficiencies of the NPC. Comparing with the unmodulated one, NPC with morphological modulation possessed higher extraction efficiencies (2 flod) as well as accelerated sampling rates (5 flod) on benzene series compounds (BTEX), improving the sensitivity of the sampling method (limits of detection ranged from 0.08 ng L −1 to 0.36 ng L −1 ). Moreover, it was also the first time that the moisture sensitive MOF-derived NPC was exploited as the SPME adsorbent. In general, this study was expected to be an important advance in broadening the approaches on designing a superior SPME adsorbents not only emphasizing on the specific surface area as well as porosity but also the morphology.