Selective enrichment-release of trace dibutyl phthalate via molecular-imprinting based photo-controlled switching followed by high-performance liquid chromatography analysis

J Sep Sci. 2021 Jan;44(2):513-520. doi: 10.1002/jssc.202000950. Epub 2020 Dec 21.

Abstract

A novel intelligent photo-controlled molecularly imprinted polymers were synthesized, based on the magnetic core-shell structure, with 4-[(4-methacryloyloxy) phenylazo] benzenesulfonic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate as the cross-linking agent. Subsequently, a series of light-controlled enrichment-release performance showed that it only took about 30 and 10 min to reach the equilibrium photosensitive characteristic peak, respectively. The photo-controlled polymers could intelligently select target molecules, the maximum adsorption capacity for dibutyl phthalate was 3.88 mg/g. However, the adsorption capacity for its structural analogue dicyclohexyl phthalate was only 0.88 mg/g. The Freundlich and Langmuir isothermal equations were discussed for the specific enrichment process. Finally, the photo-controlled molecularly imprinted polymers were successfully applied to the selective detection of dibutyl phthalate, with the recovery rate of 95.4-98.4%. It could be used for the analysis of trace dibutyl phthalate in actual samples.

Keywords: dibutyl phthalate; magnetic core-shell; molecularly imprinted polymers; photo-controlled; plasticizers.