Development of novel molecularly imprinted solid-phase microextraction fiber and its application for the determination of triazines in complicated samples coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography

A novel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) coated solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber that could be coupled directly to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was prepared with prometryn as the template molecule. The characteristics and application of this fiber were investigated. Electron microscope photographs indicated that the MIP coating with average thickness of 25.0 μm was homogeneous and porous. The extraction yield of prometryn with the MIP-coated fibers was 10 times as much as that with the non-imprinted polymer (NIP) coated fibers. And special selectivity to other triazines which have similar structure to prometryn was discovered with the MIP-coated fibers. A method for the determination of triazines by the MIP-coated SPME coupled with HPLC was developed. The optimized extraction conditions were studied. Detection limits for the triazines studied were within the range of 0.012–0.090 μg/L. The method was applied to five triazines determination in the spiked soybean, corn, lettuce, and soil samples with the recoveries of 78.0–103.5%, 82.4–113.4%, 75.5–83.4%, and 81.0–106.1%, respectively. The MIP-coated fibers are suitable for the selective extraction of trace triazines in complicated samples.