Separation and enrichment of six indicator polychlorinated biphenyls from real waters using a novel magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotube composite absorbent

A novel and effective magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotube composite for the separation and enrichment of polychlorinated biphenyls was developed. Fe3O4@SiO2 core–shell structured nanoparticles were first synthesized, then the poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) was laid on its surface to prepare the polyanionic magnetic nanoparticles. The above materials were then grafted with polycationic multiwalled carbon nanotubes, which were modified by polydiallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride through the layer-by-layer self-assembly approach. Its performance was tested by magnetic solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry for the determination of six kinds of indicator polychlorinated biphenyls in water samples. Under optimal conditions, the spiked recoveries of several real samples for six kinds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB28, PCB52, PCB101, PCB138, PCB153, PCB180) were in the range of 73.4–99.5% with relative standard deviations varying from 1.5 to 8.4%. All target compounds showed good linearities in the tested range with correlation coefficients higher than 0.9993. The limits of quantification for six kinds of indicator polychlorinated biphenyls were between 0.018 and 0.039 ng/mL. The proposed method was successfully applied to analyze polychlorinated biphenyls in real water samples. Satisfactory results were obtained using the effective magnetic absorbent.