Determination triazine pesticides in cereal samples based on single-hole hollow molecularly imprinted microspheres

Single-hole hollow molecularly imprinted microspheres (h-MIMs) were prepared by hard template method and applied to extract six triazine pesticides in cereal samples, followed by HPLC-MS/MS detection. The synthesis mechanism of the h-MIMs has been studied. The h-MIMs exhibited bigger specific surface area and much higher binding capacity than the molecularly imprinted polymers prepared by precipitation polymerization (p-MIPs) and surface polymerization (s-MIPs). Besides, the adsorption rate of h-MIMs to prometryn was significantly higher than that of p-MIPs and s-MIPs. Owing to the hollow structure of the h-MIMs, more binding cavities were located on the inner and outer surfaces of the h-MIMs, which could facilitate the removal of template molecules from the polymers and the rebinding of the target molecules to the polymers. Under the optimal conditions, the detection limits of triazines are in the range of 0.08-0.16 ng g−1. At the spiked level (5 ng g−1), the recoveries of triazines are in the range of 81 ± 4% to 96 ± 4%. The proposed method was successfully applied to determine six triazines in five cereal samples. Atrazine was found in two rice samples and a wheat sample with the contents of 5.1, 6.7 and 5.6 ng g−1, respectively. Ametryn and prometryn were found in a maize sample with the contents of 7.6 and 7.3 ng g−1, respectively.