Silica nanoparticles–nylon 6 composites: synthesis, characterization and potential use as sorbent

Abstract

Composite materials based on the combination of nanoparticles (NPs) and polymers have attracted much attention in recent years thanks to their positive characteristics. In this article an easy, cheap and green procedure for the synthesis of silica nanoparticles–nylon 6 composites is proposed. Several materials comprising different NPs–polymer ratios have been synthesized and characterized. The evaluation of their extraction performances indicated that the inclusion of NPs into the polymeric network increases their superficial area, boosting their sorbent capacity, because the NPs modify the normal stacking of the polymeric chains. Among the tested composite materials, the best one has been applied for the dispersive micro-solid phase extraction of selected estrogens (estrone, β-estradiol and estriol) from aqueous samples as a model analytical problem. The approach allows the determination of the target compounds by LC-MS/MS at the low μg L⁻¹ range with acceptable precision (better than 13.9%, expressed as relative standard deviation). Finally, the potential use of the composite for the isolation of the targets from more complex samples has been outlined.