Highly efficient and cost-effective removal of patulin from apple juice by surface engineering of diatomite with sulfur-functionalized graphene oxide.

Patulin (PAT) contamination of apple juice leads to a serious food safety issue. Developing an excellent adsorbent to efficiently remove PAT is more desirable. Herein, a cost-effective and efficient adsorbent (GO-SH/diatomite) with abundant active sites was successfully fabricated via surface engineering of diatomite with sulfur-functionalized graphene oxide (GO-SH) nanosheets, which exhibited excellent selective adsorption capacity toward PAT. The adsorption behavior, adsorption mechanism, stability and cytotoxicity were investigated by systematic studies. The adsorption results showed that its maximum adsorption capacity was 10.68 μg/mg. Moreover, attributed to the specific interaction between PAT and thiol group, more than 90% of PAT was removed from apple juice without any juice quality deterioration. Importantly, the risk of food safety issue of apple juice caused by residual GO-SH/diatomite was negligible due to the properties of easy removal and excellent biocompatibility, which guaranteed its potential application in apple juice industry for PAT removal.