Simultaneous determination of five sulfonamides in wastewater using group-selective molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction coupled with HPLC-DAD

Abstract

Group-selective molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized from three kinds of sulfonamides (SAs) and three different functional monomers, with those employing sulfamerazine (SMR) and 2-vinylpyridine (2-Vpy) found to be optimal. The BET test, static adsorption and solid-phase extraction (SPE) recovery indicate that the MIPs exhibit strong affinity toward SAs in aqueous solution. Therefore they were used for the quantitative analysis of five SAs in wastewater from treatment plants by off-line SPE coupled to reversed-phase HPLC/DAD. The recoveries and relative standard deviation (RSD) of the molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) method are 84.1–98.6% and 1.5 to 7.4% in wastewater. The limit of detection (LOD) and the enrichment factor (EF) for SAs were 4.09–19.29 ng L⁻¹ and 411–506 respectively. Five SAs analytes were detected in influents, with residues still remaining in effluents in the range of 29.30–1389.80 ng L⁻¹.