Constructing bifunctional magnetic porous poly(divinylbenzene) polymer for high-efficient removal and sensitive detection of bisphenols

In view of widespread existence and toxicity, removal and detection of bisphenols is imperative to assess environmental risks and reduce harm to human health. Although many techniques have been reported, constructing fast and sensitive method remains a challenge. Herein, porous poly(divinylbenzene) polymer was synthesized in-situ on the Fe3O4 particles by means of distillation-precipitation polymerization and functioned as sorbents to extract bisphenols. Employing Fe3O4@poly(divinylbenzene) as sorbent, a magnetic solid-phase extraction coupling with liquid chromatography was developed to detect trace bisphenols in water. This method presented low detection limits (0.01-0.03 ng/mL), high enrichment ability (enrichment factor, 327-343), and good reproducibility. Moreover, the method showed satisfactory recoveries in the detection of lake water (80.60%-116.2%) and egg sample (75.17%-120.0%). Impressively, Fe3O4@PDVB has excellent adsorption capacity, which can realize rapid kinetic adsorption of bisphenols with equilibrium time all less than 10 s. The maximum adsorption capacities reached 1074.8, 1049.7, 1299.1 and 1340.8 mg/g for bisphenol F, bisphenol A, bisphenol B and bisphenol AF with Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption mechanism of Fe3O4@PDVB to bisphenols was investigated and demonstrated that hydrophobic interactions played a key role, together with assistance of π-π stacking interactions and hydrogen interactions. Overall, this work provides a promising sorbent material with ultra-fast and large adsorption capacities for extraction of bisphenols from water.