Microextraction experimental and forcefield theoretical modelling study on exploring a silica-enriched oil palm frond biomass for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Psidium guajava

• Published in: MICROCHEMICAL JOURNAL
• Main Authors: Abidin, Nur Husna Zainal; Ibrahim, Wan Nazihah Wan; Raharjo, Yanuardi; Nodeh, Hamed Rashidi; Wahab, Roswanira Abdul; Yaakob, Muhamad Kamil; Yahaya, Noorfatimah; Kamaruzaman, Sazlinda; Hadzir, Nursyamsyila Mat; Hanapi, Nor Suhaila Mohamad
• Format: Article; Early Access
• Language: English
• Published: ELSEVIER 2024
• Subjects: Chemistry
• Online Access: https://www-webofscience-com.uitm.idm.oclc.org/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001158393100001
• ISSN: 0026-265X; 1095-9149
• DOI: 10.1016/j.microc.2023.109885

In this study, a dispersive micro-solid phase extraction (D-mu-SPE) based on oil palm frond-based silica (OPF-SiO2) sorbent was investigated for the determination of four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Psidium guajava integrated with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-DAD). The physicochemical characterization of the acid-treated and thermally extracted OPF-SiO2 by FTIR showed peaks at 806 cm- 1 and 446 cm- 1 allotted to siloxane stretching vibrations and siloxane terminating vibrations, while the FESEM spectrum of EDX analysis corroborated the presence of silicon in OPF-SiO2. Likewise, the XRD diffractograms displayed prominent peaks at 2 theta = 24 degrees, indicating a predominantly amorphous silica structure. The XRF analysis further corroborated this result, which revealed that silica constituted 78 % of the major elemental composition. The established optimized condition of D-mu-SPE extraction of PAHs required 60 mg of sorbent, an extraction time of 15 min using acetonitrile as the elution solvent, and a 5 min desorption time. The prepared sorbents exhibited a high affinity for PAHs through van der Waals and hydrogen bonding. The D-mu-SPE was linear between 50 and 5000 mu g kg- 1 for naphthalene, fluorene, anthracene, and pyrene (R2 = 0.9921---0.9997). The RSDs were acceptable for intraday (0.65-1.52 %, n = 3) and interday (0.60-1.92 %) analyses, coupled with low detection limits (2.33-4.90 mu g kg- 1 ) and satisfactory relative recovery (95.05-108.88 %). The experimental results supported the subsequent forcefield theory calculations for the PAHs and the OPF-SiO2 composite's interactions. Analytical GREEnness (AGREE) with a metric score 0.60 indicates that the developed approach is green.