Rapid and effective sample clean-up based on magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotubes for the determination of pesticide residues in tea by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

In this work, amine-functionalised magnetic nanoparticles and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MNPs/MWCNTs) composites were synthesised by a simple method and applied as an adsorbent for rapid clean-up of acetonitrile extracts of tea samples prior to analysing eight pesticide residues by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Several parameters affecting the sampling and treatment efficiency were investigated, including extraction solvent, sonication time, weight ratio of MWCNTs to MNPs in the composites, amount of adsorbent, clean-up time and washing solution. Under the optimised conditions, the recoveries obtained for each pesticide ranged from 72.5% to 109.1% with relative standard deviations lower than 12.6%. Limit of quantification ranged from 0.02 to 0.08 mg kg−1. The established method was successfully applied to the analysis of pesticide residues in real tea samples. The results indicated that the use of MNPs/MWCNTs composites allowed the simple and expeditious clean-up of complex tea samples for subsequent determination of pesticide residues.