Chemical Bonding Approach for Fabrication of Hybrid Magnetic Metal–Organic Framework-5: High Efficient Adsorbents for Magnetic Enrichment of Trace Analytes

A facile and efficient strategy about the synthesis of a novel kind of hybrid magnetic metal–organic framework (MOF)-5 via chemical bonding assembly was reported. The covalent bonding established between the amino functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles and the surface of the metal organic framework improved the chemical stability and structure uniformity of the hybrid microcrystals. Combination of MOF-5 with Fe3O4 nanoparticles allows for facile withdrawal of the porous materials by magnetic decantation. The powder X-ray diffraction patterns of the hybrid magnetic MOF-5 showed the structure of the metal organic framework was not disturbed with the decoration of magnetic nanoparticles. The as-synthesized materials combine the favorable attributes of both magnetic characteristics of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and high porosity of metal organic framework, making them excellent candidates as adsorbents for magnetic enrichment of trace analytes. Their potential applications were explored by preconcentrating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and gibberellic acids from environmental, food, and plant samples prior to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), respectively. The results showed that the magnetic MOF-5 exhibited superior enrichment capacity for both of these nonpolar and polar analytes. The method demonstrated good precision (relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 1.7–9.7%), low detection limits (0.91–1.96 ng·L–1 for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and 0.006–0.08 μg L–1 for gibberellic acid), and good linearity (correlation coefficients higher than 0.9949). The RSDs of batch-to-batch extraction were 2.9–11.2%. The magnetic MOF-5 was robust enough for repeatable use without damage of extraction performance.