Preparation of porous carbon-based molecularly imprinted polymers for separation of triazine herbicides in corn

A synthesis route of using cellulose as the precursor to prepare porous carbon (PC) had been established in this study. The as-prepared PC was introduced as carriers in the synthesis process of porous carbon-molecularly imprinted polymers (PC-MIPs), which greatly improved the absorption capacity of MIPs. Triazine pesticides in corn were extracted with matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) using the PC-MIPs as dispersants and determined by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Under the optimal MSPD condition for extracting six kinds of triazines (simazine, terbutryn, simetryne, prometryne, ametryn, and atrazine), the detection limits were 0.005-0.02 ng g^-1, while the precisions were 1.2-5.9%, and the recoveries were 92.6-104.7%. The method has been extensively applied to analyze various corn samples. Atrazine residue (1.2 μg kg^-1) was detected in one corn sample, which was lower than the maximum residual limit indicated by the Chinese stated standards (50 μg kg^-1).