Efficient Determination of β-Agonists in Environmental Water and Animal-Derived Matrices by NH2-UiO-66 Based d-SPE Coupled with UPLC-MS/MS: Performance, Mechanism and Application

β-agonists are prohibited antibiotics that have raised concerns due to their illegal use in the livestock industry, posing potential toxicity risks to human health. For ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) analysis of β-agonists, effective sample pretreatment is a crucial and challenging process that dictates the overall reliability and sensitivity of the method. Thus, this study developed a reliable method utilizing dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) with NH2-UiO-66 as a superior adsorbent, coupled with UPLC-MS/MS, to extract and quantify β-agonists in environmental water, swine urine, and milk. The synthesized NH2-UiO-66 exhibited outstanding adsorption capacities (146.06–358.00 mg/g) towards the target analytes. The optimized method demonstrated excellent performance: low matrix effects (−13.10–15.30%), wide linearity (0.1–50 μg/L), low limits of detection (0.04–0.09 μg/L), and satisfactory recoveries (81.48–106.67%) with good precision (intra-day RSDs 1.51–6.24%; inter-day RSDs 2.06–10.96%). Adsorption mechanism studies revealed that the extraction process, which followed the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, was driven primarily by electrostatic interactions, π-π stacking, and hydrogen bonding. Moreover, the material could be reused up to 10 times, with satisfactory recoveries of 81.30% to 116.10%. The proposed NH2-UiO-66-d-SPE-UPLC-MS/MS protocol is generic and provides a robust and practical solution for monitoring trace β-agonists in animal-derived foods and environmental samples, ensuring food safety and environmental health.

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Publication Details

Journal
Agriculture
Published
2026-02-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16050519
Primary Topic
Pharmacological Effects and Assays
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Efficient Determination of β-Agonists in Environmental Water and Animal-Derived Matrices by NH2-UiO-66 Based d-SPE Coupled with UPLC-MS/MS: Performance, Mechanism and Application

Changli Liu, Yuliang Xu, Zhiyue Feng, Haiyang Jiang et al.
Agriculture
Pharmacological Effects and Assays
article

Efficient Determination of β-Agonists in Environmental Water and Animal-Derived Matrices by NH2-UiO-66 Based d-SPE Coupled with UPLC-MS/MS: Performance, Mechanism and Application

Changli Liu, Yuliang Xu, Zhiyue Feng, Haiyang Jiang, Qian Ran, Boyan Sun, Zimo Liu, Jiankang Ren, Sihan Wang, Jie Xie
article en

Abstract

β-agonists are prohibited antibiotics that have raised concerns due to their illegal use in the livestock industry, posing potential toxicity risks to human health. For ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) analysis of β-agonists, effective sample pretreatment is a crucial and challenging process that dictates the overall reliability and sensitivity of the method. Thus, this study developed a reliable method utilizing dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) with NH2-UiO-66 as a superior adsorbent, coupled with UPLC-MS/MS, to extract and quantify β-agonists in environmental water, swine urine, and milk. The synthesized NH2-UiO-66 exhibited outstanding adsorption capacities (146.06–358.00 mg/g) towards the target analytes. The optimized method demonstrated excellent performance: low matrix effects (−13.10–15.30%), wide linearity (0.1–50 μg/L), low limits of detection (0.04–0.09 μg/L), and satisfactory recoveries (81.48–106.67%) with good precision (intra-day RSDs 1.51–6.24%; inter-day RSDs 2.06–10.96%). Adsorption mechanism studies revealed that the extraction process, which followed the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, was driven primarily by electrostatic interactions, π-π stacking, and hydrogen bonding. Moreover, the material could be reused up to 10 times, with satisfactory recoveries of 81.30% to 116.10%. The proposed NH2-UiO-66-d-SPE-UPLC-MS/MS protocol is generic and provides a robust and practical solution for monitoring trace β-agonists in animal-derived foods and environmental samples, ensuring food safety and environmental health.

AgricultureVol. 16(5)
University of Waterloo (CA), Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), National Institute of Metrology (CN), China Agricultural University (CN)
National Key Research and Development Program of China
Responsible consumption and production
Openalex Percentile: Top 38%
Pharmacological Effects and Assays
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