Group-selective enrichment and determination of pyrethroid insecticides in aquaculture seawater via molecularly...

Two types of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the simultaneous determination of six pyrethroid insecticides have been developed using deltamethrin (D-MIPs) and cypermethrin (C-MIPs) as template molecules. A comparison of the performance of D-MIPs, C-MIPs, and the corresponding non-imprinted polymers (NIPs) were conducted. Stronger group-selective interactions between the C-MIPs and the six pyrethroid insecticides were achieved. The MISPE method based on the C-MIPs displayed higher extraction recoveries (86.4-96.0%) with RSD values ranging from 2.4 to 7.8% for the six pyrethroid insecticides in aquaculture seawater. After the C-MIP cartridge procedure, the limits of detection and quantification for fenvalerate, deltamethrin, cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, and bifenthrin were in the 16.6-37.0 and 55.3-109.1 ng L⁻¹ ranges, respectively, and 0.68 and 2.26 μg L⁻¹ for phenothrin, respectively. The proposed MISPE method coupled with gas chromatography-electron capture detection was successfully used for the determination of the six pyrethroid insecticides in aquaculture seawater.