Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Selective Sorption of Tricyclazole in Food

Abstract Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for selective recognition and separation of tricyclazole have been synthesized by precipitation polymerization technique, using three different functional monomers viz. methacrylic acid (acidic), 4‐vinyl pyridine (basic) and methyl acrylate (neutral). MIP synthesized using tricyclazole as template, methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross‐linker, 2,2’–azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator and methanol:acetonitrile (1 : 1, v/v) as porogen gave the highest binding efficiency of 93.78 %. Sorption kinetics followed second pseudo order model (R 2 =0.999) and the data fitted better to Freundlich isotherm (R 2 =0.991). High values of selectivity factors α (19.43–24.90) and β (23.88–35.03) indicate selectivity of MIPs over non‐imprinted polymers (NIPs) toward tricyclazole in presence of other structural analogues. The MIPs were successfully applied for separating tricyclazole from fortified samples of rice and water, with recovery percentage of 91.64 % and 88.04 %, respectively. These MIPs with high selectivity and reusability can be employed routinely in sample preparation for tricyclazole residue analysis.