Triazine-cored covalent organic framework for ultrasensitive detection of polybrominated diphenyl ethers from real samples: Experimental and DFT study

Food and environmental safety issues attributable to the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are gaining increasing attention, and these urge us to establish a high-performance sample-handling technique. In this study, an outstanding adsorption performance with short adsorption time (10 min) was achieved for PBDEs using a novel synthesized dispersive solid-phase extraction adsorbent, a reticulated covalent organic framework with N/O functional groups (i.e., imine linkage, triazine, and methoxy) (TAPT–DMTA–COF). By conducting sufficient experimentation and theoretical simulation on adsorption mechanism, the halogen bond between electronegative N/O atoms of TAPT–DMTA–COF and the electropositive Br atoms of PBDEs were observed to play a more pivotal role than π–π, C–H…π interactions, and hydrophobic effects. Furthermore, the positive linear relation between calculated adsorption energy and Br content directly clarified that enrichment behavior of PBDEs can be attributed to halogen bonding. These data implied that integrated nanostructure (i.e., N/O functional groups and reticulated architecture) effectively enhanced adsorption capacity. In case of PBDE analysis, this approach achieved excellent results with low limits of detection (0.03−0.13 ng L–1). Finally, the promising potential applications of aforementioned method were verified by spiking water, fish, and milk samples with PBDEs; good PBDEs recoveries were obtained.