Multiwalled carbon nanotubes as sorbent for on-line coupling of solid-phase extraction to high-performance liquid chromatography for simultaneous determination of 10 sulfonamides in eggs and pork

The sulfonamides (SAs) have been widely used as effective chemotherapeutics and growth promoters in animals’ feeding, but their residues could be a potential danger to human health due to their carcinogenic potency and possible antibiotic resistance. Development of a simple and sensitive method for the determination of SAs residues in food of animal origin, therefore, is of great significance. An on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) method using multiwalled carbon nanotubes as sorbent coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for simultaneous determination of 10 sulfonamides (SAs) in eggs and pork was developed. The adsorptive potential of carbon nanotubes for solid-phase extraction of sulfonamides was investigated for the first time in the present paper. To on-line interface solid-phase extraction with HPLC, a conventional sample loop on the six-port injector valve of the HPLC was replaced by a preconcentration column packed with carbon nanotubes. The analytes in water solution were preconcentrated onto the preconcentration column and subsequently eluted with mobile phase of methanol–water (22:78). The developed on-line solid-phase extraction method for HPLC permitted the current HPLC separation and the next preconcentration proceeded in parallel, and thus allows one determination finished within 35 min. The RSD of 10 SAs for nine replicate measurements of a standard mixture of 1 μg l−1 were in the range of 2.5–7.8%. The method was applied to the determination of trace sulfadiazin (SDZ), sulfamerazine (SMR), sulfadimidine (SDMD), sulfathiazole (STZ), sulfamoxol (SMO), sulfamethizole (SMT), sulfamethoxypyridazine (SMP), sulfachlorpyridazine (SCP), sulfadoxin (SDX) and sulfisoxazole (SIA) in eggs and pork. The results indicated that the proposed method was simple, cost-effective and sensitive.