Synthesis and Solid Phase Extraction Performance Study of NNAL‐specific Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Using Dummy Templates

Dummy molecularly imprinted polymers (DMIPs) for 4‐(methylnitrosamino)‐1‐(3‐pyridyl)‐1‐butanol (NNAL) were produced using three structural analogues as dummy template molecules. The chosen analogues were 4‐(acetymethylamino)‐1‐(3‐pyridyl)‐butanol, 4‐(methylamino)‐1‐(3‐pyridyl)‐1‐butanol, and 1‐(3‐pyridyl)‐1,4,‐butanediol. The molecular recognition characteristics of the produced polymers were evaluated by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR). Interactions between NNAL and methacrylic acid should be cooperative hydrogen bonds while the nitrogen atom of the pyridine ring and the oxygen atom of the nitroso group in NNAL are two of the hydrogen‐bond acceptors. It was further demonstrated that DMIP synthesized by 4‐(acetymethylamino)‐1‐(3‐pyridyl)‐butanol had the best binding performance by XPS and FT‐IR. Then dummy molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (DMISPE) was developed for the determination of the analyte using the hit polymer as the sorbing m...