Preparation and evaluation of solid-phase microextraction fiber based on molecularly imprinted polymers for trace analysis of tetracyclines in complicated samples

Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) is widely used in many fields because of its characteristics of high selectivity, chemical stability and easy preparation. To enhance the selectivity and applicability of solid-phase microextraction (SPME), a novel MIP-coated SPME fiber was firstly prepared by multiple co-polymerization method with tetracycline as template. It could be coupled directly to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and used for trace analysis of tetracyclines (TCs) in complicated samples. The characteristics and application of the fibers were investigated. The electron microscope provided a crosslinked and porous surface, and the average thickness of the MIP coating was 19.5 μm. Compared with the non-imprinted polymer (NIP) coated fibers, the special selectivity to tetracycline and structure-similar oxytetracycline, doxycycline, chlortetracycline were discovered with the MIP-coated fibers. The adsorption and desorption of TCs with the MIP-coated fiber could be achieved quickly. A method for the fluorimetric determination of four TCs by the MIP-coated SPME coupled with HPLC was developed. The optimized extraction conditions such as extraction solvent, desorption solvent, and stirring speed were studied. Linear ranges for the four TCs were 5.00–200 μg/L and detection limits were within the range of 1.0–2.3 μg/L. The method was applied to simultaneous multi-residue analysis of four TCs in the spiked chicken feed, chicken muscle, and milk samples with the satisfactory recoveries.