Magnetic solid-phase extraction using magnetic hypercrosslinked polymer for rapid determination of illegal drugs in urine

A novel magnetic material Fe3O4/SiO2/P(MAA-co-VBC-co-DVB) was prepared via the hypercrosslinking of its precursor which was produced via precipitation polymerization of methacrylic acid (MAA), vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC), and divinylbenzene (DVB) in the presence of Fe3O4/SiO2 submicrospheres with the surface containing abundant reactive double bonds. The resultant sorbent was characterized by scan electron microscopy, N-2 adsorption, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It was found that this material had remarkable features such as large surface area (500 m(2)/g) and pore volume (0.32 cm(3)/g), as well as desirable chemical composition (including hydrophobic and ion-exchange moieties). Taking advantages of the Fe3O4/SiO2/P(MAA-co-VBC-co-DVB), a magnetic SPE (MSPE) coupled with capillary electrophoresis (CE) method was developed for the determination of illegal drugs in urine samples. The extraction time could be clearly shortened up to 3 min. The recoveries of these drug compounds were in the range of 84.0-123% with relative standard deviations ranging between 1.7 and 10.5%; the limit of detection was in the range of 4.0-6.0 mu g/L. The proposed method is simple, effective, and low-cost, and provides an accurate and sensitive detection platform for abused drug analysis.