Dispersive solid-phase extraction based on metal–organic framework UiO-66: Applying gamma-valerolactone as a green eluent for effective extraction of pyrethroid insecticides in water and food matrix

In this work, UiO-66-HCl-based dispersive solid-phase extraction (DSPE) was designed and developed for the enrichment of pyrethroid pesticide residues in water and food matrices before high performance liquid chromatography analysis. For the first time, gamma-valerolactone (GVL), a biodegradable, food-grade green solvent, was used as the eluent in DSPE process, realizing a significant progress in economic and ecological benefit. The stable and highly porous UiO-66-HCl was synthesized as the adsorbent by hydrothermal synthesis and hydrochloric acid etching. The prepared material was characterized by FT-IR, SEM, XRD, TGA and N 2 adsorption–desorption analyses, and the important parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the method has shown satisfactory limit of detection (4 ∼ 5 μg/L) and desirable recoveries (78.3 %∼105.7 %) as well as excellent precision (RSD < 15.7 %). Moreover, the benefits of the proposed method were assessed via various green chemistry tools, and the extraction mechanism was also briefly investigated to understand the appealing adsroption performance. It was demonstrated that the method can be successfully applied for extraction and analysis of pyrethroid pesticide residues in water and food matrices, showing an excellent application potential for green analysis of trace components.