Cyromazine imprinted polymers for selective stir bar sorptive extraction of melamine in animal feed and milk samples

Abstract

In this work, a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) coated stir bar was prepared using a self-designed polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) mold and in situ polymerization, with cyromazine as the dummy template for the target melamine. The prepared MIP coated stir bar presented a uniform and porous surface as well as good chemical stability and selectivity for melamine. Based on it, a method of MIP coated stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) combined with high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) was developed for the quantification of melamine in food samples. Significant factors affecting the extraction efficiency of melamine by MIP-SBSE, such as the extraction solvent and time, stirring rate, desorption solvent and time, were investigated thoroughly. Under the optimal conditions, the analytical performance of this method was evaluated. The detection limit of the developed method was 0.54 μg L⁻¹ for melamine with an enrichment factor of 42-fold and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of 6.1% (c = 5 μg L⁻¹, n = 7), and the linear range was 2–200 μg L⁻¹. The established method was applied for the determination of melamine in a variety of real samples including cat food, dog food, chicken feed A, chicken feed B and milk powder, and the recoveries for melamine in the spiked samples were in the range of 76.2–98.2%, 80.0–85.5%, 89.5–113%, 85.0–95.5% and 65.0–111%, respectively. The proposed method presented a good specific recognition ability and matrix interference resistance, and was demonstrated to be effective and sensitive for the analysis of melamine in animal food and milk samples.