Nitrogen-rich covalent organic frameworks as solid-phase extraction adsorbents for separation and enrichment of four disinfection by-products in drinking water.

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water can pose a health risk to humans. In this work, a new nitrogen-rich covalent organic frameworks (TpTt-COFs) was synthesized and applied firstly as a novel solid-phase extraction (SPE) trapping media for four ultra-trace levels of DBPs in drinking water samples. Under the optimal conditions, these DBPs were absorbed on a SPE cartridge; then, the DBPs were eluted with the optimized volume of eluent. The concentrated elution was detected and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Low limits of detection (0.0004-0.0063 ng mL), wide linearity (0.002-50 µg L), good reproducibility (1.54-2.88%) and repeatability (1.28-3.40%) were obtained. This novel method has been successfully applied to the analysis of ultra-trace levels DBPs in real drinking water samples. These accurate experimental results by this method indicated that the novel TpTt-COFs as a SPE trapping material was an attractive option for efficient and effective analysis of ultra-trace levels DBPs in future.