Surface imprinted magnetic carbon nanofibrous microspheres with hierarchical porosity for the highly efficient and selective extraction of Brilliant Blue from food samples

In this study, magnetic porous carbon microsphere composed of molecularly imprinted nanofibers (MPCM@MINs) were constructed and used as an adsorbent for the highly efficient extraction of Brilliant Blue (BB) in food samples. The MPCM@MINs contained imprinted nanofibers and a three-dimensional hierarchical porous structure with a magnetic responsive ability, resulting in a high surface area (368.3 m2·g−1), low mass-transfer resistance, large adsorption capacity, and fast separation ability. The maximum adsorption capacity of MPCM@MINs for BB was 39.47 mg·g−1 with excellent selectivity and a high imprinting factor (6.12). Moreover, MPCM@MINs exhibited good anti-interference ability, reusability and reliability. Importantly, BB can be easily and rapidly detected in food samples using MPCM@MINs as an adsorbent followed with UV–Vis method, and the relative standard deviation was lower than 5.85%. Therefore, MPCM@MINs may be a promising adsorbent for pollutant extraction in food samples due to the combination of different strategies of nanofibrous imprinting, magnetic separation, and hierarchical porous structure.