Benzyl-bridged bis(diphenylphosphine)-based hyper crosslinked polymer with tunable hydrophilicity for efficient nitroimidazoles' extraction for HPLC analysis

A new porous BPM-HCP with tunable hydrophobicity was designed and prepared. • It proved to have an excellent adsorption capability for nitroimidazoles (NIIMs). • Adsorption is driven by π-stacking and balanced hydrophilic/hydrophobic interaction. • A SPE-HPLC method was developed for the detection of NIIMs in complex matrices. • The method is effective and can satisfy the determination of NIIMs in food samples. A benzyl-bis(diphenylphosphine)-based hyper crosslinked polymer (denoted as BPM-HCP) was fabricated with the use of α,α’-dichloro- p -xylene as cross-linker and bis(diphenylphosphino)methane as monomer. The characterization of the polymer was made and subsequently it was explored as an adsorbent for solid-phase extraction (SPE) of nitroimidazoles (NIIMs). The key experimental parameters that affect the extraction efficiency were investigated and optimized. BPM-HCP demonstrated high capability for the effective extraction of trace NIIMs from water, chicken meat and beef samples. Its superior and selective enrichment capability could be attributed to multiple mechanisms: electrostatic attraction, π-stacking, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic interactions. Following SPE, the extract was analyzed by HPLC-UV. After optimization, the method for the determination of NIIMs in environmental water, chicken meat and beef samples produced good linear responses within the concentration ranges of 0.21–120.0 ng mL −1 , 3.75–120.0 ng g −1 , and 2.43–200.0 ng g −1 , respectively, with the correlation coefficients ( r ) falling in the range of 0.9905–0.9997. The limits of detection ranged from 0.025 to 0.067 ng mL −1 for water, 0.625–1.250 ng g −1 for chicken, and 0.53–0.81 ng g −1 for beef. The quantification limits were 0.08–0.21 ng mL −1 (water), 1.88–3.75 ng g −1 (chicken), and 1.59–2.43 ng g −1 (beef), depending on compounds. The recoveries of the method for all the samples ranged from 80.6% to 119%. The method proves applicable for the quantification of NIIMs in environmental water, chicken meat and beef samples. Download: Download high-res image (196KB) Download: Download full-size image