Preparation of hydrophilic molecularly imprinted solid-phase microextraction fiber for the selective removal and extraction of trace tetracyclines residues in animal derived foods

Abstract

The present work reported a novel hydrophilic and selective solid-phase microextraction fiber by improved multiple co-polymerization method immobilization of tetracycline molecularly imprinted polymer on a stainless steel wire and directly coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography for sensitive determination of trace tetracyclines residues in animal derived foods. The developed molecularly imprinted polymer coated solid-phase microextraction fibers were characterized through scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and adsorption experiments, the fiber with cross-linked and porous structure was observed and high thermal and chemical stability. The maximum adsorption capacity of this fiber with good selectivity reached 2.35 µg/mg in aqueous matrices, and showed good repeatability (relative standard deviation ≤ 6.6%, n = 5) and satisfying reproducibility between fiber to fiber (relative standard deviation ≤ 7.8%, n = 5). Under the optimized solid-phase microextraction conditions, satisfactory linearity (5-1000 µg/L) and detection limits (0.38-0.72 µg/kg, S/N = 3) for all the tetracyclines were obtained. The practicality of this method was proved by adding tetracycline, oxytetracycline at three levels to milk, chicken, and fish samples with good recoveries of 77.3-104.4%.

Keywords: high-performance liquid chromatography; hydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymers; solid-phase microextraction; tetracyclines.