Computational and experimental investigation of molecular imprinted polymers for selective extraction of dimethoate and its metabolite omethoate from olive oil

This work presents the development of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the selective extraction of dimethoate from olive oil. Computational simulations allowed selecting itaconic acid as the monomer showing the highest affinity towards dimethoate. Experimental validation confirmed modelling predictions and showed that the polymer based on IA as functional monomer and omethoate as template molecule displays the highest selectivity for the structurally similar pesticides dimethoate, omethoate and monocrotophos. Molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE) method was developed and applied to the clean-up of olive oil extracts. It was found that the most suitable solvents for loading, washing and elution step were respectively hexane, hexane-dichloromethane (85:15%) and methanol. The developed MIPSE was successfully applied to extraction of dimethoate from olive oil, with recovery rates up to 94%. The limits of detection and quantification of the described method were respectively 0.012 and 0.05 μg g−1.

► Development of molecular imprinted polymer (MIP), based on molecular modelling for dimethoate and its metabolite omethoate.
► Optimization of protocol molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE).
► Application of the optimized protocol for extraction from real sample (olive oil).
► Validation of the developed system of extraction by comparison with extraction using conventional methods (C18 column).