Adsorptive removal of aflatoxin B1 from vegetable oils via novel adsorbents derived from a metal-organic framework

Vegetable oils are essential daily diet, but they are simply contaminated with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), a serious toxic compound to human health. Adsorption method due to the easy operation, high efficiency and low costing is set to become a main detoxification technique for AFB1. Unfortunately, previous reported adsorbents were rarely used for detoxification in food industry since they cannot meet the criteria of large-scale production of edible oils. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with unique textural properties could be favorable precursors for synthesis of advanced materials. In this research, three kinds of Cu-BTC MOF-derived porous materials were prepared by different carbonization temperature and characterized by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption techniques. Isotherm and kinetic studies on the adsorption behaviour of AFB1 onto the three porous carbonaceous materials have been systematically conducted. The results revealed that the porous carbonaceous materials could act as the excellent adsorbents that were of enough adsorption sites for AFB1, mainly due to the hierarchical porous structure and large surface areas for the enhancement of adsorption capacity. Notably, the porous carbonaceous materials could not only remove more than 90% of AFB1 from real vegetable oils within 30 min, but also remain the treated oils at low cytotoxicity. Meanwhile, the detoxification process could little affect the quality of oils. Thus, the Cu-BTC MOF-derived porous carbonaceous materials with high efficiency, safe, practical and economic characteristics could be novel potential adsorbents used in the application of AFB1 removal from contaminated vegetable oils.