Ultrasound-assisted aynthesis of an advanced sorbent based on amphiphilic poly(methacrylic acid-co-styrene) modified magnetic nanoparticles for removal and analytical determination of dicofol

The development of enhanced and cost-effective materials for the adsorption and determination of pesticides in water is urgently required. Dicofol is an acaricide belonging to persistent organic pollutants that can lead to several diseases including cancer, passiveness, ataxia, vomiting, and affects sex hormones. In this study, we synthesized a magnetic amphiphilic poly(methacrylic acid-co-styrene) material that can be used either for the removal or analytical determination of dicofol in an aqueous medium. This sorbent was successfully prepared through free-radical polymerization of methacrylic acid (MAA) and styrene in the presence of magnetic nanoparticles using a fast synthesis technique based on ultrasonic waves. The magnetic nanoparticles and the amphiphilic sorbent were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermal gravimetric analysis, which confirmed the modification of the magnetic nanoparticles with the co-polymer. A theoretical study was applied to investigate the interactions sites in dicofol and the poly(MAA-co-styrene), suggesting the high affinity of the synthesized material towards dicofol. The developed sorbent exhibited a fast (5 min), and high maximum adsorption capacity (43.47 mg g−1) combined with high selectivity towards dicofol, following the kinetic pseudo-second-order model and the isotherm Freundlich model. This material was successfully used as a selective adsorbent in solid-phase extraction for the determination of dicofol. Under optimized conditions, namely the amount of the sorbent, the elution solvent, and the elution time, a pre-concentration factor of 25 was obtained and exploited to detect dicofol in the water sample.