Ultrasound-assisted dispersive micro-solid-phase extraction based on N-doped mesoporous carbon and high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of 1-hydroxypyrene in urine samples.

In this research, a new ultrasound-assisted dispersive micro-solid-phase extraction method based on N-doped mesoporous carbon sorbent followed by high-performance liquid chromatography equipped with diode array detector for trace measurement of 1-hydroxypyrene as a metabolite of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was optimized. Herein, the hard template method was used for the preparation of N-doped mesoporous carbon sorbent. The prepared sorbent was characterized using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, transmission electron microscopy, and elemental analysis. Parameters affecting the extraction of the target metabolite were investigated using the Box-Behnken design method. Considering optimum parameters, the plotted calibration curve for 1-hydroxypyrene was linearly correlated with the concentration span of 0.1-50 μg/L for urine media. The accuracy of the optimized procedure was examined through the relative recovery tests on the fortified urine specimens. The relative recoveries fell between 95 and 101%. The method detection limit of the proposed procedure was also calculated to be 0.03 μg/L.