Synthesis of sandwich-structured magnetic graphene-Zn-MOFs composites for quantitative determination of acarbose in rat plasma

In this study, sandwich-structured magnetic graphene composites with Zn metal-organic framework layer coated on both two sides (denoted as magG@Zn-MOFs) were synthesized. The composites have large specific surface of 114 m2 g⁻1, uniform porous structure and rapid magnetic separation within 10 s. The magG@Zn-MOFs composites were used for extraction of acarbose in plasma prior to its quantitative analysis by LC-MS/MS. The established method has good linearity (10–1000 ng mL−1), satisfactory recovery (94.3–107.5%), low detection limit (as low as 2.5 ng mL−1), good intra-day precision (RSD 3.5–5.3%) and inter-day precision (RSD 6.3–8.1%). Finally, the method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study of acarbose in rats. [Display omitted] •Sandwich-structured magnetic graphene/Zn metal-organic framework composites were synthesized.•Acarbose in plasma was extracted through hydrophilic interaction.•A new and feasible quantitative analysis method was established for the detection of acarbose plasma concentration.•This method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study of acarbose in rats.