Simultaneous extraction of multi-antibiotic residues in environmental water by DTPA-modified polyaniline nanofibers membrane

In this study, novel diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acidmodified polyaniline nanofibers membrane (DTPA-PANI NFsM) was designed and fabricated. By the synergistic effect of PANI and DTPA, the DTPA-PANI NFsM demonstrated superior sorption performance towards three classes of antibiotics with very different properties: phenicols, tetracyclines and sulfonamides. The mass transfer efficiency of DTPA-PANI NFsM was particularly high. From the isotherm and thermodynamic studies, favorable and spontaneous adsorption processes were confirmed. The potential adsorption mechanisms were investigated by FT-IR analysis. Under the optimized conditions, an efficient, fast, sensitive and economical method for the high-throughput detection of antibiotic residues in environmental water was developed. Low detection limits (1.6–28.6 ng/L for phenicols, 10–34.3 ng/L for tetracyclines, 0.46–15 ng/L for sulfonamides), broad linear range (1.5 ng/L-5 µg/L) as well as satisfactory recoveries and precisions were obtained. In addition, DTPA-PANI NFsM exhibited excellent regeneration and reusability properties, which could be reused for at least 12 times. Also, the practical application feasibility of the method was confirmed by the test of actual samples.