Development and Application of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer as Solid Phase Extraction of Imidacloprid in Environmental Samples

Abstract

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) has been prepared by a thermal polymerisation method using methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linking agent, acetonitrile as porogenic solvent, and imidacloprid as imprinted molecule (template). The experiments of MIPs-packed cartridge binding imidacloprid were done to assess the affinity of the MIPs, which were synthesized according to the different ratio of monomer to template, with imidacloprid. After optimization of MISPE protocol (acetonitrile:water = 1:4 (v/v) as washing solvent and methanol as elution solvent), the MISPE method was used for enrichment and clean up of water and soil samples. The recoveries of imidacloprid from spiked water and soil samples were not less than 87.7% and 89.2%. It confirmed that the MIP as specific SPE sorbents for cleanup and enrichment of the imidacloprid in real samples was feasible.

Keywords:

• Imidacloprid
• Molecularly imprinted polymer
• Solid phase extraction
• Sorbents

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was supported by the Chinese National “863” High-Tech Research Program (2006AA10Z450) and Bor S. Luh Food Safety Research Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.