Intelligent receptors with molecular imprints based on hybrid Fe3O4 nanoparticles for effective extraction and determination of carbofuran from contaminated water using LC-MS/MS

Abstract

The present study enlists Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) at the core for imprinting carbofuran in polymer cavities (Fe3O4@MIP). For fast binding kinetics, carbofuran imprinting sites were artificated by atom transfer radical polymerization. A thorough characterization analysis confirmed the synthesis of developed imprinted Fe3O4@MIP and non-imprinted Fe3O4@NIP. The applicability of the Fe3O4@MIP as a probe was assessed by monolayer-saturated adsorption, which was achieved in 20 min with an imprinted factor of 5.77. The saturated adsorption capacity of Fe3O4@MIP was 13.5mmol g−1, signifying the dual potential of the probe for water-soluble carbofuran recognition/enrichment and its separation. The adsorption followed fast pseudo-second-order kinetics. Further, the utility of Fe3O4@MIP was assessed to detect spiked carbofuran (0.3 μmol) in four different water samples mimicking natural interference. The results established the universality of the technique with a limit of detection (LOD) and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.52 and 1.57 µmol L−1, respectively, for carbofuran. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.