Β-Cyclodextrin/calix[4]arene Hybrid Porous Organic Polymer Membrane for Synergistic Extraction of Fluorescent Whitening Agents Migrating from Food Contact Materials

Acurate and sensitive determination of hazards from food contact materials is important to monitor food safety. It is necessary to excavate efficient adsorbent for simultaneous recognition and adsorption of food hazards of trace level for sample preparation. In this work, β-cyclodextrin and calix[4]arene were employed as hybrid functional monomers to prepare macrocyclic porous organic polymer (β-CD-CX4 POP). It was proved that the supramolecular cavities of β-CD-CX4 POP could form inclusion complexes with fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) through host-guest recognition, which greatly improved the adsorption performance. The hydrophobic cavities of β-cyclodextrin and calix[4]arene of β-CD-CX4 POP exhibited synergistic effect for simultaneous recognition of FWAs. The high-throughput enrichment of FWAs was realized by β-CD-CX4 POP membranes coupled with a multiple-channel syringe pump. Based on membrane-based solid-phase extraction combined with UHPLC-MS/MS, a sensitive analytical method was established to determine six FWAs. The LODs was in range of 3-50 ng/L with the linear range of 0.02-100 μg/L. The developed method was used to quantify FWAs in bread wrapper and bread, and the spiked recoveries ranged from 78.1%-119% with RSD of 2.3%-9.7%. This work indicated that β-CD-CX4 POP was promising for the simultaneous recognition and adsorption of FWAs migrating from food contact materials.