Multi‐walled carbon nanotube modified dummy‐template magnetic molecularly imprinted microspheres as solid‐phase extraction material for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in fish

Novel multi‐walled carbon nanotube modified dummy‐template molecularly imprinted microspheres (MWCNTs@DMMIPs) were successfully synthesized as adsorbents for six kinds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). MWCNTs@DMMIPs were prepared by a surface molecular imprinting technique. Core–shell Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles were employed as magnetic support. 3,4‐Dichlorobenzene acetic acid was used as a dummy template instead of PCBs, methacrylic acid was used as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was used as the cross‐linker. The resulting absorbent was characterized by various methods. The adsorbent was employed for extracting PCBs and exhibited good selectivity and high adsorption efficiency. Furthermore, it was reusable and capable of magnetic separation. Adsorption kinetics fit well with a pseudo‐second‐order kinetic equation and also exhibited a three‐stage intra‐particle diffusion model. The Freundlich model was used to describe the adsorption isotherms. The materials were successfully applied to the magnetic dispersive solid‐phase extraction of six kinds of PCBs followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry determination in fish samples, the limit of detection of six kinds of PCBs were 0.0028–0.0068 μg/L and spiked recoveries ranged between 73.41 and 114.21%. The prepared adsorbent was expected to be a new material for the removal and recovery of PCBs from contaminated foods.