ABSTRACT
Monolithic cryogels from starch were successfully synthesized and applied as alternative biodegradable filters for the first time. Rice flour was cross-linked with Ca2+ from limewater during gelatinization before being frozen and then thawed for three cycles. The resultant material was then soaked in ethanol for 3 h before incubation at 80 °C for 1 h, yielding monolithic material with interconnected pores in sizes of 51 ± 18 to 52 ± 15 µm without any need of freeze-drying. The cryogels possessed macroporous structure with specific surface areas from 1.1 to 4.3 m2g-1, they could adsorb water from 599 ± 27 to 635 ± 59% of their dry weight with low swelling ratios of 6.0 ± 0.3 to 6.4 ± 0.6 gwater/gcryogel, and could be applied as biofilters to remove suspended particles and reduce the light absorption of water sample from 25 ± 3 to 96 ± 5%. The prepared biofilters can be re-used up to three times, although they cost only USD 0.0004/piece. Complete weight loss resulted from burial in soil for 30 days, indicating environmentally friendly biodegradation and potential for environmental applications.
ABSTRACT
Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) has been recognized as a marker for the detection of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In this work, a novel monolithic solid-phase extraction (SPE) sorbent based on graphene oxide nanoparticles (GO) in starch-based cryogel composite (GO-Cry) was successfully prepared for BaP analysis. Rice flour and tapioca starch (gel precursors) were gelatinized in limewater (cross-linker) under alkaline conditions before addition of GO (filler) that can increase the ability to extract BaP up to 2.6-fold. BaP analysis had a linear range of 10 to 1000 µgL-1 with good linearity (R2 = 0.9971) and high sensitivity (4.1 ± 0.1 a.u./(µgL-1)). The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 4.21 ± 0.06 and 14.04 ± 0.19 µgL-1, respectively, with excellent precision (0.17 to 2.45%RSD). The accuracy in terms of recovery from spiked samples was in the range of 84 to 110% with no significant difference to a C18 cartridge. GO-Cry can be reproducibly prepared with 2.8%RSD from 4 lots and can be reused at least 10 times, which not only helps reduce the analysis costs (~0.41USD per analysis), but also reduces the resultant waste to the environment.