Amine-Functionalized Metal–Organic Framework as a New Sorbent for Vortex-Assisted Dispersive Micro-Solid Phase Extraction of Phenol Residues in Water Samples Prior to HPLC Analysis: Experimental and Computational Studies

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a new class of hybrid inorganic–organic microporous crystalline materials, which possess unique properties such as high surface area, tunable pore size, and good thermal stability. These unique characteristics make MOFs interesting targets for sample pretreatment. In this work, MIL-53 material based on aluminum and containing amine functional groups (NH2-MIL-53(Al)) was synthesized and applied as an efficient sorbent for development of vortex-assisted dispersive micro-solid phase extraction for eight United States Environmental Protection Agency’s priority phenols from aqueous samples prior to analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode-array detection. A simple extraction process was designed. The parameters affecting the extraction efficiency, such as amount of sorbent, extraction time, type of desorption solvent and its volume were investigated. The good linearity in the concentration range of 0.0015–10.0000 μg mL−1 with the coefficients of determination of greater than 0.9929, low limits of detection (0.0004–0.0133 μg mL−1) and relative standard deviations of lower than 10% were obtained. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of phenol compounds in different water sample matrices including treated water, waste water, river water, sea water, lake water, drinking water and tap water. In addition, computational simulation was performed to predict the adsorption ability of NH2-MIL-53(Al) towards the studied phenolic compounds. The computational results were in agreement with the experimental studies and it has been proved that NH2-MIL-53(Al) is promising for enrichment of phenolic pollutants.