Determination of free fatty acids in edible oil based on hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles

In our study, ammoniated hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (NH 2 -HMSN) with uniform diameter and stable structure were successively prepared via SiO 2 core hard template method. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy revealed that amino group was effectively modified. Adsorption experiments showed that adsorption capacity of NH 2 -HMSN towards free fatty acids (FFAs) was superior to aminated mesopores or silica microspheres. Following through optimization of extraction conditions, FFAs from edible oil samples were successfully gathered by NH 2 -HMSN and showed favorable linearities (0.2–90 μg g −1 ), remarkably low limit of detections (0.03–0.15 nmol g −1 ), acceptable recoveries (85.08–96.82 %) and relatively accurate precisions (1.64–4.99 %). In comparison to existing adsorbent, NH 2 -HMSN could be successfully prepared via the chemical reaction of common raw materials under normal pressure and temperature. Furthermore, NH 2 -HMSN with hollow and mesoporous structure was more effective than the current adsorbents aimed at FFAs analysis in aspect of surface area and adsorption capacity.