Synthesis and characterization of a molecularly imprinted polymer and its application as SPE enrichment sorbent for determination of trace methimazole in pig samples using HPLC-UV

A novel molecularly imprinted polymer that could be applied as enrichment sorbent was prepared using methimazole (MMZ) as the template molecule, methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker Though evaluated by static, kinetic and competitive adsorption tests, the polymer exhibited high adsorption capacity, fast kinetics and good selective ability A met hod for determination of trace MMZ was developed using this polymer as enrichment sorbent coupled with high performance liquid chromatography focusing on complex biological matrices Under the optimum experimental conditions, the MMZ standard is linear within the concentration range studied, that is, from 0 5 mu g L-1 to 150 mu g L-1 (r(2) = 0 9941) Lower limits of detection (LOD, at S/N = 3) and quantification (LOQ at S/N = 10) in pig samples were 063 mu g kg(-1) and 2.10 mu g kg(-1) for kidney, 0 51 mu g kg(-1) and 1 70 mu g kg(-1) for liver, 056 mu g kg(-1) and 1 86 mu g kg(-1) for muscle, respectively Recoveries and relative standard deviation (RSD. 11=9) values for precision in the developed method were from 71 14% to 88 41% and from 2 53% to 6 18%. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B V. All rights reserved