Laboratory calibration of a POCIS-like sampler based on molecularly imprinted polymers for glyphosate and AMPA sampling in water.

For more than 15 years, integrative passive sampling has been successfully used for monitoring contaminants in water, but no passive sampling device exists for strongly polar organic compounds, such as glyphosate. We thus propose a polar organic chemical integrative sampler (POCIS)-like tool dedicated to glyphosate and its main degradation product aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and describe the laboratory calibration of such a tool for calculating the sampling rates of glyphosate and AMPA. This passive sampler consists of a POCIS with molecularly imprinted polymer as a receiving phase and a polyethersulfone diffusion membrane. The calibration experiment for the POCIS was conducted for 35 days in a continuous water-flow-through exposure system. The calibration results show that the sampling rates are 111 and 122 mL day-1 for glyphosate and AMPA respectively, highlighting the potential interest in and the applicability of this method for environmental monitoring. The influence of membrane porosity on the glyphosate sampling rate was also tested. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

Smart coumarin-tagged imprinted polymers for the rapid detection of tamoxifen.

A signalling molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesised for easy detection of tamoxifen and its metabolites. 6-Vinylcoumarin-4-carboxylic acid (VCC) was synthesised from 4-bromophenol to give a fluorescent monomer, designed to switch off upon binding of tamoxifen. Clomiphene, a chlorinated analogue, was used as the template for the imprinting, and its ability to quench the coumarin fluorescence when used in a 1:1 ratio was demonstrated. Tamoxifen and 4-hydroxytamoxifen were also shown to quench coumarin fluorescence. Imprinted and non-imprinted polymers were synthesised using VCC, methacrylic acid as a backbone monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, and were ground and sieved to particle sizes ranging between 45 and 25 µm. Rebinding experiments demonstrate that the imprinted polymer shows very strong affinity for both clomiphene and tamoxifen, while the non-imprinted polymer shows negligible rebinding. The fluorescence of the imprinted polymer is quenched by clomiphene, tamoxifen and 4-hydroxytamoxifen. The switch off in fluorescence of the imprinted polymer under these conditions could also be detected under a UV lamp with the naked eye, making this matrix suitable for applications when coupled with a sample preparation system.

Interest of molecularly imprinted polymers in the fight against doping. Extraction of tamoxifen and its main metabolite from urine followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection.

A molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) has been synthesized in order to specifically extract tamoxifen, a nonsteroidal antiestrogen, and its metabolites from urine by solid-phase extraction (SPE) before HPLC-UV analysis. Clomiphene, a chlorinated tamoxifen analogue, was selected as template for MIP synthesis. Polymerisation was achieved by thermal polymerisation of methacrylic acid (MAA) as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as cross-linking agent and acetonitrile as porogen. The efficient elimination of the urinary matrix has been obtained by MIP-SPE but the elution recovery of tamoxifen was initially too low ( approximately 14%). This problem has been overcome following two ways. At first, a preliminary HLB-SPE of the urine has enabled to discard endogenous salts and to percolate an organic sample through the MIP cartridge. Extraction recoveries are equal to 56 and 74% for tamoxifen and 4-hydroxytamoxifen, respectively. Then, a second MIP has been prepared with styrene and MAA as functional co-monomers. Strong pi-pi interactions occurring between phenyl groups of styrene and tamoxifen promote rebinding of the analyte by the specific sites. The enhanced hydrophobic character of the imprinted polymer has enabled the direct percolation of urine through MIP-SPE and the easy elimination of endogenous salts from urine with only one aqueous washing step. HPLC-UV analysis has confirmed high extraction recoveries (85%) for tamoxifen and its metabolite with an enrichment factor of 8. This analytical protocol can selectively detect the presence of tamoxifen metabolites in urines and be useful as a proof of doping in competitive sports.

Preliminary recovery study of a commercial molecularly imprinted polymer for the extraction of glyphosate and AMPA in different environmental waters using MS.

A commercial molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) dedicated to glyphosate (GLY) and its main metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), was lately assessed as "POCIS-like" sampler on mineral water. The obtained results were encouraging with 111 and 122 mL day-1 as sampling rates for GLY and AMPA, respectively. Therefore, before applying this passive sampler to environmental waters, the commercial phase was tested on different water matrices as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) device. The SPE protocol was carried on 250 mg of MIP with the following three steps: conditioning by Milli-Q water, loading of the sample (15 mL), and elution of the analytes by 4 mL 0.1 M HCl that were evaporated to dryness and recovered in 15 mL of the suitable solvent for analysis. This protocol was first applied to mineral water spiked by GLY and AMPA at environmental concentration levels (25-750 ng L-1). Analyses were carried out by ultra-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to tandem mass after derivatization of GLY and AMPA by 9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate. The linear correlation between concentrations measured with and without SPE on MIP was proved.Furthermore, other extractions showed that high concentrations of metal ion interferents (lead(II), cadmium(II), and zinc(II)) in groundwaters did not reduce SPE performance of the MIP.Then, concentration assays were undertaken and brought noteworthy results, such as the recovery of 80% GLY and AMPA from groundwater spiked at 10 ng L-1 and concentrated 100 times. For this purpose, ion exclusion chromatography hyphenated to mass was applied without previous derivatization of the analytes. The same concentration factor and analytical method were applied to 100 ng L-1 spiked sea water with recoveries of 96% for GLY and 121% for AMPA.

Molecularly imprinted polymer solid-phase extraction for detection of zearalenone in cereal sample extracts.

The aim of this work was to develop a method for the clean-up and preconcentration of zearalenone from corn and wheat samples employing molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) as selective sorbent for solid-phase extraction (SPE). Cereal samples were extracted with acetonitrile/water (75:25, v/v) and the extract was diluted with water and applied to an AFFINIMIP ZON MIP-SPE column. The column was then washed to eliminate the interferences and zearalenone was eluted with methanol and quantified using HPLC with fluorescence detection (lambda(exc)=275/lambda(em)=450 nm). The precision and accuracy of the method were satisfactory for both cereals at the different fortification levels tested and it gave recoveries between 82 and 87% (RSDr 2.5-6.2%, n=3) and 86 and 90% (RSDr 0.9-6.8%, n=3) for wheat and maize, respectively. MIP-SPE column capacity was determined to be not less than 6.6 microg of zearalenone and to be at least four times higher than that of immunoaffinity column (IAC). The application of AFFINIMIP ZON molecularly imprinted polymer as a selective sorbent material for detection of zearalenone fulfilled the method performance criteria required by the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 401/2006, demonstrating the suitability of the technique for the control of zearalenone in cereal samples.

Solid-phase extraction using molecularly imprinted polymers for selective extraction of a mycotoxin in cereals.

The aim of this work was to develop a method for the clean-up of a mycotoxin, i.e. Ochratoxin A (OTA), from cereal extracts employing a new molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) as selective sorbent for solid-phase extraction (SPE) and to compare with an immunoaffinity column. A first series of experiments was carried out in pure solvents to estimate the potential of the imprinted sorbent in terms of selectivity studying the retention of OTA on the MIP and on a non-imprinted polymer using conventional crushed monolith. The selectivity of the MIP was also checked by its application to wheat extracts. Then, after this feasibility study, two different formats of MIP: crushed monolith and micro-beads were evaluated and compared. Therefore an optimization procedure was applied to the selective extraction from wheat using the MIP beads. The whole procedure was validated by applying it to wheat extract spiked by OTA at different concentration levels and then to a certified contaminated wheat sample. Recoveries close to 100% were obtained. The high selectivity brought by the MIP was compared to the selectivity by an immunoaffinity cartridge for the clean-up of the same wheat sample. The study of capacity of both showed a significant higher capacity of the MIP.