Cotton-supported graphene functionalized with aminosilica nanoparticles as a versatile high-performance extraction sorbent for trace organic analysis

• Functionalization of cotton fibers with graphene-aminosilica nanoparticles.
• Extraction of PAHs, phthalates, musks, phenolics, haloacetic acids from environmental waters.
• Hydrophobic, π–π stacking, hydrophilic (hydrogen bonding) and ionic interactions are responsible for the extraction performance.

Cotton fibers were functionalized, following the coating of fibers with graphene oxide (GO), the covalent attachment of aminosilica nanoparticles and the reduction to the cotton-GR-aminosilica material. Employing the cotton-supported graphene (GR)-aminosilica material, a novel and easily applicable extraction mode was put forward. Several groups of analytes were employed such as PAHs, phthalates, musks, phenolic endocrine disrupters and haloacetic acids to test the applicability of the functionalized cotton for extraction purposes. The extraction yields ranged from 76% to 96% corroborating the high degree of affinity of the material for the above groups of compounds while the limits of detection were between 0.06 and 1.10 μg/L using gas chromatography-electron capture detection for haloacetic acids and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for the rest of the analytes. The accuracy of the method was evaluated in fortified lake water at a spiking level of three to ten times the lowest quantifiable concentration and the recoveries varied from 86% to 104% for all the studied analytes. The π–π and hydrophobic interactions, the hydrogen bonding between the functionalized cotton and analytes and the electron polarizability and ionizability of the chemical structures justify the extraction behavior.