Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles for selective solid phase extraction and pre-concentration of Tizanidine in human urine

•UV spectrophotometer was used for determination of Tizanidine after pre-concentration by MMIP-NPs in urine and ultrapure water samples.•Low consumption of organic solvent was developed.•Separation using an external magnetic field was developed.

In this work, the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (MMIP-NPs) for the selective pre-concentration of Tizanidine have been described. The polymer nanoparticles were synthesized by the polymerization of methacrylic acid as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linker, 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator and Tizanidine as a template molecule. The MMIP-NPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimeteric analysis (TGA). Imprinted Tizanidine molecules were removed from the polymeric structure using acetic acid in methanol (10:90 V/V%), as the eluent solvent. The limits of detection (L.O.D) for Tizanidine were 1.13 × 10−6 M and 1.68 × 10−6 M in ultrapure water and urine, respectively. Also, the relative standard deviations (R.S.D) in ultrapure water and urine were 2.21% and 2.58%, respectively. The method was applied to the determination of Tizanidine in the human urine samples.