Synthesis and application of a novel molecularly imprinted polymer-coated stir bar for microextraction of triazole fungicides in soil

The preparation, characteristics and application of a sorptive stir bar coated with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) using triadimefon as the template molecule are described here. Raw glass capillary was coated with MIP through chemical bonding. The synthesis method was effective and reproducible with the batch-to-batch RSD within 7.8%. Scanning electron micrographs of the stir bar revealed a highly porous coating with average thickness of 15 mm. The synthesized stir bar was proved to be highly stable inmost of the solvent for use. Extraction performance showed the fabricated stir bar has excellent molecular recognition abilities for triadimefon and the structure-related compounds, such as triadimenol, diniconazole, flutriafol, hexaconazole, tebuconazole, paclobutrazol and uniconazole, and thus can be applied for simultaneous determination of these triazole fungicides from complex samples by coupling with high-performance liquid chromatography. The variables that influence extraction were optimized with 10.0 mu g/L standard solutions of triazole fungicides, and the analytical method was established for the determination of triazole fungicides in soil. The detection limits were in the range of 0.14-0.34 mu g/L, and the recoveries were from 86.7 to 114.6% for spiked soil sample.