pH-responsive switchable deep eutectic solvents to mediate pretreatment method for trace analysis of triazole fungicides in peel wastes

The existing QuEChERS-combined analytical pretreatment methods are limited by large reagent consumption, high environmental burden, and mediocre effects. To provide an efficient and green pretreatment method, this study developed pH-responsive switchable deep eutectic solvents (SDESs) to extract triazole fungicides (TFs) from fruit peel wastes, which could enhance the preconcentration effect of target compounds in food waste samples with complex matrices. The mechanisms of pH-induced phase transition and hydrophobicity-hydrophilicity conversion of pH-responsive SDESs were investigated by pH phase diagrams and chemical characterization techniques, respectively. We validated the established method by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), and lower LOD (0.089-0.351 ng mL-1), LOQ (0.297-1.172 ng mL-1), RSD (≤8.8 %) and satisfactory recoveries (90.6 %-110.9 %) and preconcentration factors (389-512) were obtained in rotting grape peel, watermelon peel, and orange peel samples. Our findings highlight the potential of pH-responsive SDESs in the extraction and analysis of various natural food products.