Solid-phase extraction, quantification, and selective determination of microcystins in water with a gold-polypyrrole nanocomposite sorbent material

A novel sorbent material, gold-polypyrrole (Au-PPy) nanocomposite-coated silica, is described for the efficient solid-phase extraction (SPE) of six common microcystins (MCs) well below the recommended United States EPA and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. With the optimized SPE protocol, samples spiked with MCs were determined at ng/L concentrations by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) in different aqueous sample...