A polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes/dual ligands-based magnetic adsorbent for effective extraction of aflatoxins in cereals via multiple interactions

A new adsorbent was synthesized by coupling polymeric ion liquid (PIL) and polymeric styrene (PSt) to polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS)-modified magnetic nanoparticles. The adsorbent was characterized by transmission electron microscope, vibrating sample magnetometer, x-ray diffraction and fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy. By introduction of branched POSS and dual ligands, the developed POSS/PIL-PSt-based magnetic adsorbent possessed high density of alkyl chains, charged groups and benzene rings and could provide multiple active sites, and showed high extraction efficiency for aflatoxins. By combining with high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detector, the type of ion liquid monomer, dosage ratio of ion liquid to styrene, and some extraction parameters were optimized. Low limit of detection (S/N = 3) and low limit of quantitation (S/N = 10) were achieved with 0.05–0.20 μg/kg and 0.17–0.67 μg/kg, respectively. The recoveries of four aflatoxins for spiked cereal samples were between 87% and 120% with relative standard deviation from 3.2% to 11.2% (n = 3). The satisfactory results indicated that the fabricated adsorbent offered promising application in the extraction of aflatoxins in complicated cereals.