Determination of triazine herbicides from honey samples based on hydrophilic molecularly imprinted resins followed by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A facile, novel and efficient approach to extract six triazine herbicides from honey samples based on hydrophilic molecularly imprinted resins (MIRs) was described. The MIRs were prepared in a one-pot polycondensation with resorcinol and melamine as the double functional monomers, formaldehyde as a crosslinking agent, and ametryn as the template. The obtained MIRs have a uniform spherical morphology and excellent dispersibility in water due to them having a large number of hydrophilic groups. The MIRs were successfully used as a solid-phase extraction material to rapidly extract and clean up to six triazines in honey samples followed by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry detection. Under optimal conditions, the method showed higher recoveries and a shorter extraction time. The detection limits of the six triazines are in the range of 0.02–0.15 ng g⁻¹. The recoveries of the six triazines are in the range of 83 ± 4% to 97 ± 4% at the spiked level of 5 ng g⁻¹. The proposed method is simple and quick and has the potential to detect triazine herbicides in other aqueous samples.