Magnetite nanoparticles coated with surfactant Sylgard 309 and its application as an adsorbent for paraben extraction from pharmaceutical and water samples

In this paper, the extraction of parabens using a newly developed sorbent, Sylgard 309@MNP, is presented. Sylgard 309@MNP was prepared by coating Fe3O4 nanoparticles with the non-ionic surfactant Sylgard 309. It was characterised based on scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, and vibrating sample magnetometry which confirmed the successful functionalisation of Sylgard 309 on the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The adsorption efficiency of the synthesised Sylgard 309@MNP in magnetic solid phase extraction towards selected parabens, namely methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, and benzylparaben, was evaluated using HPLC-UV. Under optimal conditions, the proposed method was then applied in various samples. The validation of the method shows good linearity (0.1–1.00 μg mL−1) with the coefficient of determination (R2) > 0.9995. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of the developed method are in the range of 0.02–0.03 μg mL−1 and 0.08–0.09 μg mL−1 respectively. The extraction recovery from pharmaceutical and personal care products, water samples, and cosmetics was in the range of 60–120%, 72–119%, and 110–120% with the relative standard deviation (RSD) of 0.64–11.8%, 0.04–11.6%, and 0.04–13.9%, respectively. This method was successfully used for analysing parabens in real samples.