Monitoring the levels of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in the environment is of vital importance, owing to their sustained environmental presence, extensive distribution, and associated health risks. The development of cost-effective and efficient sorbents for the establishment of sensitive analytical methods is critical for achieving trace-level detection. In this study, a graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)-based sorbent is synthesized by a facile sonication-assisted method exfoliated by zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) in situ. The novel ZIF-67/g-C3N4 composites were systematically characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and N2 adsorption-desorption analysis, exhibiting good dispersity and a large surface area. Moreover, molecular dynamics simulations indicated that g-C3N4 structures can be effectively exfoliated by the introduced ZIF-67 molecules. The hybrid material was successfully utilized as a dispersive solid-phase extraction sorbent, and the extraction factors were systematically optimized by response surface methodology. Under optimal conditions, the synthesized sorbent exhibited desirable linear correlations (R2 > 0.99), a low detection limit (0.3-2 ng L-1), and good repeatability (relative standard deviation <15%, n = 6). The developed method was applied for the analysis of natural and spiked water samples. The study demonstrated that the ZIF-67/g-C3N4 composites are promising materials for pollutant adsorption from drinking water samples.
Keywords: Dispersive solid-phase extraction; HPLC-MS/MS; Perfluorinated compounds; g-C(3)N(4).
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