Construction of imine-linked covalent organic framework as advanced adsorbent for the sensitive determination of chlorophenols

•A covalent organic framework (TAPT-AN-COF) was fabricated by a modulation strategy.•The TAPT-AN-COF showed excellent enrichment performance to chlorophenols (CPs)•A TAPT-AN-COF based new method was developed to analyze CPs in different samples.•The developed method exhibits great potential for more analytical application. Food safety is a great concern of the general public. Chlorophenols (CPs) as organic pollutant can be found in drinking water and foods, causing serious harm to human health. Herein, imine-linked covalent organic frameworks (COFs), named as TAPT-AN-COF, was synthesized by aniline modulation strategy through condensation of 1,3,5-triformylphoroglucinol and 4,4′,4′'-(1,3,5-Triazine-2,4,6-triyl)trianiline with aniline as modulator. The prepared TAPT-AN-COF possesses good crystallinity and regular morphology, displaying excellent adsorption capability towards CPs pollutants. Thus, the TAPT-AN-COF was used as novel adsorbent for off-line solid-phase extraction of four CPs (2-CP, 3-CP, 2,3-CPs, 2,4-CPs) from bottled water, tea drink and honey samples before high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection. Under optimal conditions, wide linear range, low detection limits and satisfactory extraction recovery were gained. The π-stacking and hydrophobic interactions between the TAPT-AN-COF and the analytes played an important role in the adsorption. The established method has a great potential in determining other hydrophobic aromatic compounds.