Preparation of hydrophilic polymer brushes magnetic microspheres by surface-initiated for magnetic dispersive solid phase extraction of tetracycline antibiotic residues from honey

Activators regenerated by electron transfer-atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET-ATRP) was applied to the continuous grafting of polybasic polymers and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) brushes on the surface of the magnetic microspheres (MMs). At first, the MMs were coated with silica gel, modified by amino group, and then 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide was grafted on the surface of MMs. After that, the hydrophilic polymer brushes magnetic microspheres (HMMs) were prepared by polymerization on the surface of the MMs. HMMs were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer. The adsorption performance to protein was studied. The results demonstrated that HMMs have the relatively uniform particle size, good dispersity and excellent protein resistance properties. Tetracycline antibiotics (TCs, tetracycline hydrochloride, chlortetracycline hydrochloride and doxycycline hydrochloride) in honey samples were determined by magnetic dispersion solid phase extraction (MDSPE) using the prepared HMMs and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The average recoveries were obtained in the range of 85.8%-94.5%. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) of the proposed method were in the ranges of 1.92-2.56 μg/kg and 6.40-8.53 μg/kg, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to fast clean-up and enrichment of the TCs residues in honey.