Metal-organic framework functionalized magnetic NbCT for high enrichment of polychlorinated biphenyls in water prior to gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

As a typical kind of persistent organic pollutants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) may cause great harm to human health. Recently, MXene has gained considerable attention due to its specific properties for the removal of pollutants by various principles. Present work reported a new functionalized MXene material, NHMIL-88 modified magnetic NbCT, for developing a facile and efficient magnetic solid phase extraction method for enrichment and sensitive detection of PCBs in environmental water samples. The adsorption mechanism and parameters that may impact the extraction efficiencies of PCBs were explored. Gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was utilized to detect the enriched PCBs. The results demonstrated that nine PCBs possessed good linearities in the range of 0.005 ∼ 50 μg L and 0.005∼ 40 μg L, respectively. The detection limits of PCBs were over range of 0.06 - 0.28 ng L. The adsorption of PCBs on NHMIL-88 modified magnetic NbCT followed quasi-second-order kinetic and Langmuir adsorption isotherm models. The fortified recoveries in real water samples ranged from 87.6 % to103.4 % (n = 3), which confirmed that the established method owned merits such as simplicity, rapidness, robustness, and high extraction efficiencies, and might be utilized for the detection of trace PCBs in environmental water samples.