Effective determination of a pharmaceutical, sulpiride, in river water by online SPE-LC–MS using a molecularly imprinted polymer as a preconcentration medium

• We developed a polymer-based adsorbent having selective retention ability for sulpiride.
• The adsorbent could be used for solid phase extraction of sulpiride with dual washing.
• Online SPE-LC–MS provided the effective determination of sulpiride with high accuracy.

We report an effective and a quantitative analysis method for one of pharmaceuticals, sulpiride, in river water by online solid phase extraction (SPE) connected with liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) using a molecularly imprinted polymer as a preconcentration medium. The polymer prepared with a pseudo template molecule showed the selective retention ability based on the interval recognition of functional groups in sulpiride. Also, the imprinted polymer provided an effective concentration of a trace level of sulpiride in offline SPE with dual washing processes using water and acetonitrile, although another imprinted polymer prepared by an authentic method using sulpiride and methacrylic acid as a template and a functional monomer, respectively, showed the selective adsorption only in organic solvents. Furthermore, we employed the imprinted polymer as the preconcentration column of online SPE-LC–MS and the results supposed that the proposed system allowed the quantitative analysis of sulpiride with high sensitivity and recovery (10 ng/L at 96%). Additionally, the determination of sulpiride in real river water without an additional spiking was effectively achieved by the system.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide