Preparation and evaluation of an adsorbent based on poly (muconic acid-co-divinylbenzene/ethylenedimethacrylate) for multiple monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction of tetracycline antibiotics

- A monolith-based adsorbent for the extraction TAs was designed and fabricated.
- The poly (MA-co-DBED) monolith was used as the extractive medium of MF-SPME.
- Multiply interactions were involved in the effective extraction of TAs.
- Method for the sensitive monitoring of TAs in honey samples was developed.

To extract tetracycline antibiotics (TAs) effectively, a new adsorbent based on poly (muconic acid-co-divinylbenzene/ethylenedimethacrylate) monolith was fabricated and used as the extraction medium of multiple monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction (MD/MF-SPME). The effect of the fabrication parameters on extraction efficiency was studied thoroughly. Elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and mercury intrusion porosimetry were used to check the physicochemical properties of the adsorbent. Some key parameters that affect the extraction performance of MD/MF-SPME for TAs were investigated systematically. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the prepared adsorbent could effectively extract the TAs through multiple interactions. At the same time, a simple and sensitive method for monitoring trace TAs in honey samples was developed by coupling MD/MF-SPME with high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry detection (MD/MF-SPME-HPLC-MS/MS). The limits of detection (S/N = 3) for target compounds were in the range of 7.3-17.1 ng/kg. The intra-day and inter-day precision (relative standard deviations, n = 4, %) at 0.5 μg/kg and 20.0 μg/kg spiking concentrations were 5.0-9.5% and 3.6-10.0%, respectively. The mean recoveries of the target TAs in the real honey samples were between 70.5-111.0%.