Selective enrichment of anti-inflammatory drugs from river water samples by solid-phase extraction with a molecularly imprinted polymer.

A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) is synthesised by a noncovalent protocol in which ibuprofen was used as a template molecule. The polymer was evaluated chromatographically and it was seen that the MIP showed cross-reactivity. Subsequently, when this polymer was used as sorbent in SPE it was possible to selectively extract a mixture of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs from aqueous samples when a cleanup step with dichloromethane was performed. The performance of the MIP was evaluated with river water and water from a wastewater treatment plant, and compared with the performance of a commercial Isolute ENV+ sorbent.