Simultaneous determination of four quinolones in honey by nickel/aluminum-layered double hydroxide-based air-assisted dispersive solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography

A novel air-assisted dispersive solid-phase extraction method based on nickel/aluminum-layered double hydroxides combined with high performance liquid chromatography was established for the simultaneous determination of ofloxacin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin in honey. With the assistance of air, nickel/aluminum-layered double hydroxides extracted quinolones from the matrix under alkaline conditions via the coordination reaction between their surface layer metal cations and quinolones, and their interlayer exchange reaction toward anionic quinolones. Afterwards, the adsorbents were dissolved with acidic solutions and the analytes were detected by high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detector. Under optimization, the method achieved low detection limits of 0.25-0.82 ng/g and quantification limits of 0.82-2.73 ng/g. High accuracy were obtained with recoveries of 82.3-90.5%. The intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations were 4.39-11.0% and 2.16-17.5%, respectively. The method was simple, sensitive, convenient and environment friendly. It was suitable for the determination of quinolones in honey.