Development of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers based on carbon nanotubes - Application for trace analysis of pyrethroids in fruit matrices

The sensitive and efficient magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) were successfully synthesized using carbon nanotubes as matrix and Fe3O4 particles as magnetic ingredient. Tetraethyl orthosilicate was used as modification material of the carbon nanotubes. Cyhalothrin, methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate were used as template molecule, functional monomer and cross-linker, respectively. Azo-isobutyronitrile and polyvinylpyrrolidone were used as initiator and dispersant, respectively. The MMIPs were used for the separation of pyrethroids including beta-cyfluthrin, cyhalothrin, cyphenothrin and permethrin in fruit samples followed by high performance liquid chromatography analysis. The polymers were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, transmission electron microscopy and a physical property measurement system. The isothermal absorption experiment, kinetics absorption experiment and selectivity of MMIPs were studied in detail. Scatchard analysis revealed that two kinds of different binding sites existed in MMIPs. The maximum adsorption capacities of two binding sites were 65.21 and 189.83 mg g(-1), and dissociation constants were 7.11 and 30.40 mu g mL(-1), respectively. The kinetic property of MMIPs was well fitted to the second-order equation. The selectivity experiment indicated that MMIPs had higher selectivity toward cyhalothrin and its structural analogs than reference compound. The feasibility of detecting pyrethroids from real samples was testified in spiked fruit samples with different concentrations (0.025, 0.25 and 2.5 mg kg(-1)). The LODs of beta-cyfluthrin, cyhalothrin, cyphenothrin and permethrin were 0.0072, 0.0035, 0.0062 and 0.0068 mg kg(-1), respectively. Precisions of intra-day and inter-day ranging from 2.6% to 4.3% and 4.2% to 5.6% were obtained, respectively. This method was applied to determine pyrethroids in different fruit samples including apple, pear, orange, grape and peach, and satisfied recoveries (82.4-101.7%) were obtained. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.