A novel magnetic ion imprinted polymer as a selective magnetic solid phase for separation of trace lead(II) ions from agricultural products, and optimization using a Box-Behnken design

•A novel Fe3O4@SiO2@IIP polymer was used for determination trace amounts of lead ions.•A Box-Behnken design was used for evaluation and determination of the optimum condition through response surface methodology.•The method was used for detection of Pb(II) in different agricultural products.

In this work, a magnetic ion-imprinted polymer (Fe3O4@SiO2@IIP) as a novel and selective nanosorbent for selective extraction of Pb(II) ions from various agricultural products is presented. The novel lead magnetic ion-imprinted polymer was synthesized by imidazole as a new ligand and grafted onto the surface of Fe3O4@SiO2 NPs. A Box-Behnken (BBD) design was used for optimization of the extraction and elution steps. In the selected conditions, the limit of detection was 0.48 ng mL−1, preconcentration factor was 300, the sorption capacity of this new magnetic ion-imprinted polymer was 105 mg g−1, and the precision of the method (RSD%) for six replicate measurements was found 3.2%. Finally, the feasibility of the new magnetic ion-imprinted polymer was evaluated by extraction and determination of trace Pb2+ ions in different agricultural products including (orange, mango, apple, kiwi, lettuce, broccoli, carrot, squash, eggplant, radish, mushroom, cucumber, and tomato).