Polydopamine-coated magnetic nanoparticles for isolation and enrichment of estrogenic compounds from surface water samples followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry determination

Anna Laura Capriotti, Chiara Cavaliere*, Giorgia La Barbera, Susy Piovesana, Roberto Samperi, Riccardo Zenezini Chiozzi, Aldo Laganà

*Corresponding author for this work
25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Estrogens, phytoestrogens, and mycoestrogens may enter into the surface waters from different sources, such as effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial plants, and animal farms and runoff from agricultural areas. In this work, a multiresidue analytical method for the determination of 17 natural estrogenic compounds, including four steroid estrogens, six mycoestrogens, and seven phytoestrogens, in river water samples has been developed. (Fe3O4)-based magnetic nanoparticles coated by polydopamine (Fe3O4@pDA) were used for dispersive solid-phase extraction, and the final extract was analyzed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were prepared by a co-precipitation procedure, coated by pDA, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. The sample preparation method was optimized in terms of extraction recovery, matrix effect, selectivity, trueness, precision, method limits of detection, and method limits of quantification (MLOQs). For all the 17 analytes, recoveries were >70 % and matrix effects were below 30 % when 25 mL of river water sample was treated with 90 mg of Fe3O4@pDA nanoparticles. Selectivity was tested by spiking river water samples with 50 other compounds (mycotoxins, antibacterials, conjugated hormones, UV filters, alkylphenols, etc.), and only aflatoxins and some benzophenones showed recoveries >60 %. This method proved to be simple and robust and allowed the determination of natural estrogenic compounds belonging to different classes in surface waters with MLOQs ranging between 0.003 and 0.1 μg L−1. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Original languageEnglish
JournalAnalytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
Volume408
Issue number15
Pages (from-to)4011-4020
Number of pages10
ISSN1618-2642
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2016

Keywords

  • Dispersive solid-phase extraction
  • Estrogens
  • Magnetic nanoparticles
  • Mycoestrogens
  • Phytoestrogens
  • Polydopamine

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