A novel Fe3O4@h-BNNSs was prepared and applied for the analysis of PCA herbicides.

Fe3O4@h-BNNSs showed excellent extraction efficiency towards PCA herbicides.

The absorption mechanism was discussed in detail.

This novel method was proved to be simple, effective, sensitive and green.

High-efficiency caption of pesticide residue is of vital significance for environmental safety monitoring. Herein, a hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets-based magnetic composite (Fe3O4@h-BNNSs) was synthesized and applied for the magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) of five phenoxy carboxylic acid (PCA) herbicides from water samples. Based on the π-π interaction, hydrogen bond and halogen bond, the Fe3O4@h-BNNSs composite showed excellent adsorption ability towards PCA herbicides. Several main variables that influenced the extraction efficiencies of PCA herbicides were investigated and optimized via single-factor experiment. Combining this Fe3O4@h-BNNSs composite-based MSPE with high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, a novel sensitive method for the analysis of PCA herbicides was developed. Under the most favorable conditions, the proposed method displayed good linear ranges (20.0-10000.0 ng L−1), low limits of detection (5.6-10.3 ng L−1), satisfactory precisions (1.1-6.8%) and recoveries (76.6-107.2%). Overall, the present work can be a versatile and worthy utility for the determination of PCA herbicides from different water samples.

Hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets

Magnetic solid-phase extraction

Phenoxy carboxylic acid herbicides

HPLC-MS/MS

Water samples

Data will be made available on request.

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