Abstract

A covalent organic framework composite hydrogel sorbent beads was fabricated for the vortex-assisted dispersive miniaturized-solid phase extraction and determination of parabens and synthetic phenolic antioxidants from food matrices. The covalent organic framework was entrapped into alginate hydrogel beads. This composite sorbent effectively adsorbs analytes through hydrophobic, π-π and hydrogen bonding interactions. Under optimal extraction conditions, the developed method demonstrated good linearity from 1.00 to 100 µg kg⁻¹ for methyl paraben and 2.00 to 100 µg kg⁻¹ for tertiary butylhydroquinone, propyl paraben, butyl paraben and butylated hydroxyanisole. Limits of detection ranged from 0.25 to 0.50 µg kg⁻¹. The developed sorbent was applied to the extraction of parabens and synthetic phenolic antioxidants from tomato paste, mayonnaise, infant milk powder and coffee creamer samples. The analytes were separated and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography, achieving recoveries ranging from 89 to 98 % with RSDs lower than 7 %. The vortex-assisted extraction approach was efficient, and the fabricated sorbent could be reused for up to eight cycles. The greenness of the methodology was also evaluated.