Hydrophilic molecularly imprinted melamine-urea-formaldehyde monolithic resin prepared in water for selective recognition of plant growth regulators

Abstract

New hydrophilic molecularly imprinted melamine-urea-formaldehyde monolithic resin (MIMR) is synthesized using dopamine hydrochloride as a dummy template via in-situ polymerization directly within pipette tips and it presents special molecular recognition to plant growth regulators in aqueous matrices. Hydrophilic groups (such as hydroxyl groups, imino groups, and amino groups) can be introduced into MIMR by melamine– urea–formaldehyde resin, which make MIMR materials compatible with aqueous media and show their specific molecular recognition in aqueous sample solutions. Meanwhile, monolithic structures avoid the influence of uneven filling on the extraction efficiency. Various parameters affecting the selective recognition of MIMR have been optimized, such as molar ratio of melamine to urea, molar ratio of melamine and urea to formaldehyde, the amount of template and porogen. The prepared MIMR is applied as the sorbents of solid phase extraction (SPE) for sensitive and selective recognition of three plant growth regulators (p-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, 1-naphthaleneacetic acid and 2.4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) in bean sprouts. Considering its excellent hydrophilicity and specificity, MIMR–SPE is promising to be a potential pretreatment strategy in biological, environmental, and clinical fields.