Determination of free fatty acids in edible oil based on hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles

In our study, ammoniated hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (NH2-HMSN) with uniform diameter and stable structure were successively prepared via SiO2 core hard template method. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy revealed that amino group was effectively modified. Adsorption experiments showed that adsorption capacity of NH2-HMSN towards free fatty acids (FFAs) was superior to aminated mesopores or silica microspheres. Following through optimization of extraction conditions, FFAs from edible oil samples were successfully gathered by NH2-HMSN and showed favorable linearities (0.2–90 μg g−1), remarkably low limit of detections (0.03–0.15 nmol g−1), acceptable recoveries (85.08–96.82 %) and relatively accurate precisions (1.64–4.99 %). In comparison to existing adsorbent, NH2-HMSN could be successfully prepared via the chemical reaction of common raw materials under normal pressure and temperature. Furthermore, NH2-HMSN with hollow and mesoporous structure was more effective than the current adsorbents aimed at FFAs analysis in aspect of surface area and adsorption capacity.