Development of surface imprinted core–shell nanoparticles and their application in a solid-phase dispersion extraction matrix for methyl parathion

• A new strategy for producing hybrid organic–inorganic imprinted silica nanoparticles for recognition of methyl parathion.
• Three different shell structures were generated over the particles.
• The particles were used in a solid-phase dispersion extraction procedure for the cleanup of template.

Applying molecular imprinting techniques to the surface of functionalized SiO2 allows the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with accessible, high affinity and surface exposed binding sites. This paper demonstrates a new strategy for producing such hybrid organic–inorganic surface imprinted silica nanoparticles for specific recognition of methyl parathion. The technique provides surface grafting imprinting in chloroform using amino modified silica nanoparticles as supports, acrylamide as the functional monomer, γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy silane as the grafting agent, and methyl parathion as a template. The amino propyl functional monomer layer directs the selective occurrence of imprinting polymerization at the silica surface through copolymerization of grafting agents with functional monomers, but also acts as an assistive monomer to drive the template into the formed polymer shells to create effective recognition sites. The resulting MIPs-SiO2 nanoparticles display three-dimensional core–shell architectures and large surface areas. The molecularly imprinted shell provides recognition sites for methyl parathion, with the materials exhibiting excellent performance for selecting the template. Using MIPs-SiO2 nanoparticles as a matrix of solid-phase dispersion extraction sorbents, trace amounts of methyl parathion are selectivity extracted from pear and green vegetable samples while simultaneously eliminating matrix interferences, attaining recoveries of 84.7–94.4% for the samples.