A Novel Polymer Coated Magnetic Porous Carbon Nanocomposite Derived from a Metal-organic Framework for Multi-target Environmental Pollutants Preconcentration

This study describes the synthesis of a novel polymer (polypyrrole-polythiophene) coated magnetic porous carbon (MPC) composite derived from magnetic metal-organic framework (MOF) and its utilization in multi-target environmental pollutants preconcentration. In this regards, FeO nanoparticles (NPs) was used as magnetic core and Co-MOF-71 was coated on the surface of the NPs. Afterwards, magnetic MOF (MMOF) was carbonized under nitrogen atmosphere and finally MNC was coated with a polymer layer of the type polypyrrole-polythiophene to obtain the nanocomposite (MPC@PPy-PTh). Magnetic property, structure and morphology of MPC@PPy-PTh were explored via various characterization techniques. Applicability of MPC@PPy-PTh nanoadsorbent was investigated in multi-target environmental pollutants preconcentration using 4-chlorophenol 2-naphtol, 1-amino-2-naphthol, 2,4-dichloroaniline, 3,4-dichloroaniline, benzothiophene and naphthalene as the model analytes. Effect of experimental factors on the preconcentration of target pollutants was explored and optimized systematically. Under the optimized condition, LODs were obtained in the range of 0.06-0.18 µg L. The proposed method exhibited linearity within the range of 0.25-500 µg L. Repeatability of the new method based on the relative standard deviations (n = 5) was in the range of 3.4-9.0%. Finally, the analytical applicability of the optimized method was investigated in seawater and wastewater samples and satisfactory results were achieved.