Solid-phase extraction for selective determination of bisphenol A in drinks and fruits by dummy surface molecularly imprinted polymer with direct synthetic method

Abstract

A reliable and selective method was developed for the determination of bisphenol A (BPA) in drinks and fruit using dummy surface molecularly imprinted polymer (DSMIP) as a solid-phase extraction (SPE)-enrichment and separation sorbent coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), whose structure is similar to BPA, was selected as a dummy template molecule. DSMIP has a higher selectivity for BPA than surface non-imprinted polymer (SNIP) when used as sorbents for SPE. Potential factors affecting the extraction efficiency, including conditioning, sample loading, washing and elution, and the breakthrough volume were optimised. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the recoveries of BPA in drinks and fruit were in the range from 98% to 105% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) below 7%, and a limit of detection (LOD) of 3 ng ml⁻¹. The developed extraction protocol eliminated the effect of template leakage on quantitative analysis and could be applied to the trace determination of BPA in complicated functional samples.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• dummy template
• surface molecular imprinting polymers
• solid-phase extraction
• bisphenol A
• drinks
• fruits

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Commonwealth Scientific Foundation for Industry of Chinese Inspection and Quarantine (grant number 201210071), of the Ministry of National Science and Technology of China.