Dual-template imprinted polymers for class-selective solid-phase extraction of seventeen triazine herbicides and metabolites in agro-products

Abstract A novel dual-template molecularly imprinted polymer (DMIP) was prepared with atrazine and prometryn as the template and applied as a class-specific adsorbent for simultaneously selective solid-phase extraction of seventeen triazine herbicides and metabolites from complex matrices. For comparison, a non-imprinted polymer (NIP) and two single-template imprinted polymers (SMIPs) were also synthesized using the same procedure of DMIP, but in the absence of the template (NIP) or with one template (SMIP). Various parameters affecting the extraction performance of DMIP-SPE were investigated in detail. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment efficiency, class-selectivity and reusability of DMIP-SPE were evaluated. Only DMIP-SPE possessed high affinity and good selective recognition ability for all the seventeen targets including chloro-, thiomethyl- and methoxy- triazines. Further, a DMIP-SPE-LC–MS/MS method was developed for simultaneously determining trace triazine herbicides and metabolites in maize, wheat and cottonseed samples. The method showed good linearity (r>0.9941) in the range of 10-200 μg kg −1 , high sensitivity with low limits of detection of 0.5–8.8 μg kg −1 , and satisfactory recoveries of 61.3–105.9% with relative standard deviations of 2.1–10.7%. These results highlighted the good application prospect of the multi/dual-template imprinting strategy in the high-throughput analysis of various concerned contaminants in agro-products.