Evaluation of eggshell membrane-based bio-adsorbent for solid-phase extraction of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography

The potential of eggshell membrane (ESM) as a novel solid-phase extraction bio-adsorbent was investigated in the present study. The ESM with a unique structure of intricate lattice network showed a predominant ability to capture linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) as a model of organic pollutants by the hydrophobic interactions between ESM and LAS molecular at pH very close to the isoelectric point of ESM, which was similar to the most widely used trapping mechanism for SPE. Under the optimal conditions, the breakthrough capacities of the ESM packed cartridge for C10–C13 LAS homologues were found to be 30, 53, 50, and 43 μg g⁻¹, respectively. On the basis of high-performance liquid chromatography separation and UV detection of LAS homologues, the proposed system could respond down to 0.027 ng mL⁻¹ of LAS with a linear calibration range from 0.2 to 100 ng mL⁻¹, showing a good LAS enrichment ability of eggshell membrane biomaterial with high sensitivity, and could be successfully used for the detection of residual LAS in environmental water samples. The reproducibility among columns was satisfactory (RSD among columns is less than 10%). A comparison study with ESM, C8 and C18 as adsorbents for LAS demonstrated that ESM-based bio-adsorbent was advantageous over C8 and C18, the widely used traditional adsorbents.