LAUSR

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been increasingly employed in separation science, including sample preparation. Herein we fabricated the amino bearing core-shell structured COFs nanospheres [Fe3O4@TpBD(NH2)2], and a novel magnetic boronate affinity adsorbent was synthesized by postsynthetic modification of the Fe3O4@TpBD(NH2)2 with 2-formylphenylboronic acid. The magnetic boronate affinity adsorbent possesses fast magnetic response and high binding capacity up to 1037 μmol g-1 for dopamine. Besides, it was used as an adsorbent for extraction of urinary monoamine neurotransmitters at neutral pH. A method for detection of the monoamine neurotransmitters was developed by coupling the magnetic solid phase extraction with high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection. Under the optimized conditions, a good analytical method was obtained in the linear dynamic range of 2-200 ng mL-1 with R2 between 0.9917 and 0.9966, with low limit of detection (0.31-0.54 ng mL-1) and limit of quantification (1.04-1.80 ng mL-1). The recoveries of the monoamine neurotransmitters were in the range of 86.3-115%, with relative standard deviations of 2.34-10.5% (intra-day) and 2.84-14.4% (inter-day). The method was successfully applied to the determination of the monoamine neurotransmitters in human urine samples. This work is of great importance for preparing functionalized core-shell structured magnetic covalent organic framework nanospheres, it also demonstrates the feasibility of the functionalized magnetic COFs as adsorbents in sample pretreatment.