Facile synthesis of multifunctional attapulgite/Fe3O4/polyaniline nanocomposites for magnetic dispersive solid phase extraction of benzoylurea insecticides in environmental water samples

• A novel superparamagnetic ATP/Fe3O4/PANI nanocomposite was first introduced in MDSPE.
• ATP/Fe3O4/PANI nanocomposites exhibited fast adsorption and desorption kinetics.
• An excellent sorbent-to-sorbent reproducibility was demonstrated in the procedure.
• A wider linear range and good recoveries with low LODs were achieved.
• The ATP/Fe3O4/PANI-based MDSPE was effective in detecting BUs in river samples.

In this study, the superparamagnetic attapulgite/Fe3O4/polyaniline (ATP/Fe3O4/PANI) nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by a one-pot method. Fe (III) was applied as both the oxidant for the oxidative polymerization of aniline and the single iron source of Fe3O4 formed by the redox reaction between aniline and Fe (III). The ATP/Fe3O4/PANI was used as sorbent for magnetic dispersive solid phase extraction (MDSPE) of benzoylurea insecticides (BUs) in environmental water samples. The as-prepared nanocomposite sorbents were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), X Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and vibrating sample magnetometry. Various experimental parameters affecting the ATP/Fe3O4/PANI-based MDSPE procedure, including the composition of the nanocomposite sorbents, amount of ATP/Fe3O4/PANI nanocomposites, vortex time, pH, and desorption conditions were investigated. Under the optimal conditions, a good linearity was observed for all target analytes, with correlation coefficients (r2) ranging from 0.9985 to 0.9997; the limits of detection (LOD) were in the range of 0.02–0.43 μg L−1, and the recoveries of analytes using the proposed method ranged between 77.37% and 103.69%. The sorbents exhibited an excellent reproducibility in the range of 1.52–5.27% in extracting the five target analytes. In addition, the intra-day and inter-day precision values were found to be in the range of 0.78–6.86% and 1.66–8.41%, respectively. Finally, the proposed ATP/Fe3O4/PANI-based MDSPE method was successfully applied to analyze river water samples by rapid preconcentration of BUs.

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