Development of a molecularly imprinted polymer for prometryne clean-up in the environment

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are prepared on the surface of modified silica gel using prometryne as a template, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a crosslinker, and 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator. The structure of the MIPs was characterized using SEM and FTIR spectroscopy. The selectivity of the MIPs for the template molecule prometryne was proven by adsorption experiments. Highly selective SPE cartridges of MIP particles were developed and an optimized prometryne procedure was developed for the enrichment and clean-up of prometryne residues in water, soil, and wheat samples. The concentrations of prometryne in the samples were analyzed by HPLC. The average recoveries of prometryne spiked for water at 0.05∼0.8 mg/L were 101.47-106.65% and the RSD was 2.63-4.71%. The average recoveries of prometryne spiked for soil at 0.05∼0.8 mg/L were 87.34-94.91% with the RSD being 2.77-8.41%. The average recoveries of prometryne spiked for wheat plant at 0.2∼2.0 mg/kg were 91.04-97.76% with the RSD being 6.53-10.69%. The method developed here can be regenerated and repeatedly used more than two dozen times.