Architectural Engineering Inspired in Situ Growth of Covalent Organic Frameworks as Outstanding Fiber Coating for Solid-Phase Microextraction of Phenols

Abstract

The development of facile methods for the preparation of high-performance solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coatings is of great significance and urgently needed. In this work, inspired by architectural engineering, a facile and rapid synthetic strategy for the in situ growth of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) on the surface of stainless steel wire as SPME coating was proposed. Subsequently, the COF coated fiber was applied for phenol extraction. Due to the avoidance of using any binder, the porous structure of COFs was well preserved, leading to a superior extraction performance, which is much better than that of the COF coating fabricated through physical adhesion and commercial polyacrylate coating. Combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), an efficient and sensitive analytical method for the quantification of phenols was established with high enhancement factors (11080-58762), wide linear range (2-10000 ng·L-1), low limits of detection (LODs, 0.39-0.72 ng·L-1), and good repeatability (RSD, ≤6.0%). Moreover, the feasibility of the established method was demonstrated by the determination of target phenols in certified reference materials (water and soil) with satisfactory results. The proposed in situ preparation method provides a rapid and facile way to prepare high-performance COFs coated fibers for the efficient SPME of trace phenols from practical samples with complex matrices.

Keywords: Solid-phase microextraction, Covalent organic frameworks, In situ growth, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, Phenols