Hydroxylated hierarchical flower-like COF for solid-phase extraction of adrenergic receptor agonists in milk

A new detection platform based on a hydroxylated covalent organic framework (COF) integrated with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) was constructed and used for detecting adrenergic receptor agonists (ARAs) residues in milk. The hydroxylated COF was prepared by polymerization of tris(4-aminophenyl)amine and 1,3,5-tris(4-formyl-3-hydroxyphenyl)benzene and applied to solid-phase extraction (SPE) of ARAs. This hydroxylated COF was featured with hierarchical flower-like morphology, easy preparation, and copious active adsorption sites. The adsorption model fittings and molecular simulation were applied to explore the potential adsorption mechanism. This detection platform was suitable for detecting four α 2 - and five β 2 -ARAs residues in milk. The linear ranges of the ARAs were from 0.25 to 50 µg·kg −1 ; the intra-day and the inter-day repeatability were in the range 2.9–7.9% and 2.0–10.1%, respectively. This work demonstrates this hydroxylated COF has great potential as SPE cartridge packing, and provides a new way to determine ARAs residues in milk. Graphical Abstract