Inorganic-Organic Nanoarchitectonics: MXene/Covalent Organic Framework Heterostructure for Superior Microextraction

Abstract

One of the difficulties limiting covalent organic frameworks (COFs) from becoming excellent adsorbents is their stacking/aggregation architectures owing to poor morphology/structure control during the synthesis process. Herein, an inorganic-organic nanoarchitectonics strategy to synthesize the MXene/COF heterostructure (Ti3C2Tx/TAPT-TFP) is developed by the assembly of β-ketoenamine-linked COF on the Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets. The as-prepared Ti3C2Tx/TAPT-TFP retains the 2D architecture and high adsorption capacity of MXenes as well as large specific surface area and hierarchical porous structure of COFs. As a proof of concept, the potential of Ti3C2Tx/TAPT-TFP for solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of trace organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) is investigated. The Ti3C2Tx/TAPT-TFP based SPME method achieves low limits of detection (0.036–0.126 ng g−1), wide linearity ranges (0.12–20.0 ng g−1), and acceptable repeatabilities for preconcentrating trace OCPs from fruit and vegetable samples. This study offers insights into the potential of constructing COF or MXene-based heterostructures for the microextraction of environmental pollutants.