Computational modeling, fabrication, and characterization of the deep eutectic solvent-based green molecular cage for selective metronidazole extraction from plasma followed by UHPLC with diode array detector determination.

Four ternary deep eutectic solvents were computationally designed and synthesized, being used as candidate functional monomers in metronidazole molecular imprinting polymer synthesis, allowing selective extraction and determination by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection. In terms of metronidazole selective extraction, the best results were obtained by (deep eutectic solvent)2 :(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate)11 , in which deep eutectic solvent is the functional monomer constructed by combining three components in 6:6:2 ratios of choline chloride:ethylene glycol:methacrylic acid. The effects of different parameters on molecular imprinted solid-phase extraction of metronidazole were thoroughly explored through screening design and response surface methodology. The adsorption mechanism findings show that the adsorption data are primarily fitted on the Freundlich model based on higher correlation coefficient. Kinetic experiments have shown that the mechanism of adsorption fits the pseudo-second-order model. The best extraction recovery (96.5%) was obtained in 25-min elution time, desorption temperature of 40°C, and 1.0 mL ACN as eluent. Metronidazole was measured by a validated ultra high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection method. The calibration of the method was linear in the range of 0.1-10 μg/mL with limits of detection and quantification of 0.03 and 0.1 μg/mL, respectively. The method was successfully applied for the determination of metronidazole in human plasma.