Controllable multipods periodic mesoporous organosilica modified with ionic liquid and application in simultaneous and accurate detection of aflatoxin B1 and its biosynthetic precursors in cereals

Aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) and its biosynthetic precursors usually coexist and pose a significant risk to food safety, but the simultaneous and accurate detection remains challenging due to their diverse structures and trace levels as well as complex food matrix. Herein, we proposed a novel triphenyl ionic liquid-modified multipods periodic mesoporous organosilica (mp-PMO-IL(ph) 3 ) with controllable pods, serving as an adsorbent of dispersive solid-phase extraction (DSPE), and then combined with high performance liquid chromatography for simultaneous and accurate determination of AFB 1 and its two typical biosynthetic precursors with varied structures and polarity. The multipods and hierarchical pore structure as well as multifunctional groups endowed mp-PMO-IL(ph) 3 with excellent extraction recovery of above 90.6% and satisfactory extraction selectivity for three analytes from different cereals. Under optimal conditions, the developed method was validated and showed wide linearity of 0.9-120 ng g -1 (r 2 ≥ 0.9974) and low limits of detection of 0.18-0.30 ng g -1 . The recoveries of three analytes in seven cereal samples spiked at three different concentrations (1.0, 5.0 and 25.0 ng g -1 ) were 93.1% to 106.9% with relative standard deviations ≤ 6.9%. This study introduces a promising and novel approach for accurate determination of trace AFB 1 and its precursors in complex food matrix.