Adenine-coated magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotubes for the selective extraction of aristolochic acids based on multiple interactions

•A novel magnetic nanocomposite was designed and synthesized by using adenine.•Adenine was used to provide adsorption site based on multiple interactions.•The magnetic nanocomposite can selectively recognize aristolochic acids.•The nanocomposite was exploited to extract aristolochic acids from TCMs. A method is described for the functionalization of magnetic carbon nanotubes to recognize aristolochic acid Ⅰ and Ⅱ. 3-Glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane was used as a coupling agent to immobilize adenine on a solid support. The morphology and structure of adenine-coated magnetic carbon nanotubes was investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The adsorption performance of the adenine-coated magnetic carbon nanotubes was evaluated via adsorption isotherms, the kinetics and selectivity tests. The adsorption capacity of the adenine-functionalized sorbent for aristolochic acid Ⅰ was determined to be 24.5 μg mg−1. By combining magnetic solid phase extraction with HPLC detection, a method was developed to enrich and detect aristolochic acids used in traditional Chinese medicine. A satisfactory recovery (92.7 - 97.5% for aristolochic acid Ⅰ and 92.6 - 99.4% for aristolochic acid Ⅱ) and an acceptable relative standard deviation (