Preparation and Application of Polymerized High Internal Phase Emulsion Monoliths for the Preconcentration and Determination of Malachite Green and Leucomalachite Green in Water Samples

Abstract

Polymerized high internal phase emulsion (polyHIPE) monoliths were prepared and applied as adsorbent materials for solid-phase extraction (SPE) of malachite green (MG) and leucomalachite green (LMG) from water samples. The polyHIPE monoliths were prepared by post-functionalization of monolithic surface with 6-aminocaproic acid (ACA) via ring opening reaction of epoxy groups in glycidyl methacrylate (GMA)-based polyHIPEs, and then applied to the preconcentration and determination of trace MG and LMG in environmental water samples by combing with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Taking MG and LMG as targets, main factors affecting SPE performance of the polyHIPE monoliths were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the ACA-functionalized polyHIPE monoliths could effectively preconcentrate MG and LMG from 150 mL of water samples, and the recoveries of MG and LMG at three spiked levels were ranged from 84.8 to 97.4% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) lower than 6%. The proposed method exhibited good linearity in the range of 2–200 ng mL–1, with low limits of detection of 17.0 and 8.7 pg mL–1 for MG and LMG, respectively. In addition, the prepared ACA-modified polyHIPE monolith showed good durability and stability, and it could be reused for 200 cycles without obvious losing the extraction performance.