A europium- and terbium-coated magnetic nanocomposite as sorbent in dispersive solid phase extraction coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography for antibiotic determination in meat samples

A new magnetic dispersive solid-phase extraction approach based on Eu- and Tb-coated magnetic nanocomposites, combined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with fluorometric detection, is reported for the extraction and simultaneous determination of veterinary antibiotics. The method is aimed at monitoring of potential residues of three tetracyclines, namely oxytetracycline, tetracycline, chlortetracycline and three acidic quinolones, such as oxolinic acid, nalidixic acid and flumequine, chosen as model analytes, in animal muscle samples. The nanocomposites were obtained by synthesizing magnetic nanoparticles by a co-precipitation method and their coating with terbium and europium ions. The limits of detection obtained using standard solutions were: 1.0, 1.5, 3.8, 0.25, 0.7 and 1.2 ng mL−1, which corresponds to 3.3, 5.0, 12.7, 0.8, 2.3 and 4.0 μg kg−1 for oxytetracycline, tetracycline, chlortetracycline, oxolinic acid, nalidixic acid and flumequine, respectively, in meat samples. The precision values, obtained in the presence of the sample matrix, were in the ranges 0.12-2.0% and 2.6-15.4% for retention times and areas, respectively. The selectivity of the method was checked by assaying different veterinary drugs, finding that most of them did not interfere at the same concentration levels as that of analytes. A recovery study was performed in the presence of chicken and pork muscle samples, which provided values in the range of 61.5-102.6%.