Synthesis of multiwalled carbon nanotubes/metal-organic framework composite for the determination of neonicotinoid pesticides in medicine and food homology products

A novel extraction adsorbent composite of MWCNTs/NH2-MIL-101(Fe) was synthesized, and was used to extract 6 kinds of neonicotinoid pesticides in medicine and food homology products. The composite was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). MWCNTs were enveloped around MOFs to provide physical support for the crystal structure. The adsorbent has higher adsorption capacity and reusability than pure NH2-MIL-101(Fe). Combined with UPLC-MS/MS, the method showed the low limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 0.01–0.07 μg/kg and 0.04–0.22 µg/kg, respectively. It exhibited high extraction recovery of 77.86–101.10% for neonicotinoid pesticides in spiked samples. Meanwhile, this novel method could be successfully employed for the detection of other medicine and food homology products. Compared with previous reports, this method has advantages in detection limit and extraction recovery, indicating that it can be a preferential choice for the detection of neonicotinoid pesticides.