Preparation of dummy template-imprinted polymers for the rapid extraction of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs residues in aquatic environmental samples.

A molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesized and applied as a sorbent in the solid-phase extraction device. The imprinted polymer was characterized by fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope. The results revealed that imprinted polymer possess sensitive selectivity and reliable adsorption properties for five NSAIDs. The imprinted polymer was successfully applied to the pre-concentration for five NSAIDs in different water samples prior to UPLC-MS/MS. In the early studies, several factors were investigated, including pH adjustment, the kind of elution solvent and the volume of elution solvent. Finally, we found that the pH 5 and an aliquot of 2 mL methanol were suitable for the water samples. The limits of detection and limits of quantitation of five nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs varied from 0.007 to 0.480 μg L-1 and 0.03 to 1.58 μg L-1 , respectively. The spiking recoveries of the target analytes were 50.33-127.64% at the levels of 0.2 μg L-1 , 2 μg L-1 and 5 μg L-1 . The precision and accuracy of this method showed a great increase compared with traditional solid-phase extraction. The developed method was successfully applied to extraction and analysis of NSAIDs in different water samples with satisfactory results which could help us better understand their environmental fate and risk to ecological health.