Rapid preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers by custom-made microwave heating for analysis of atrazine in water.

The rapid preparation of an atrazine-imprinted polymer in a cost-effective custom-made microwave reactor was demonstrated. The polymerization reaction was accelerated by microwave heating, and the preparation time was greatly shortened (to 1 h). The resulting polymer was successfully applied as solid-phase extraction adsorbent for the selective extraction and preconcentration of atrazine in environmental water samples. The binding capacity of the polymer was 1.11 mg/g polymer. The polymer provided selectivity with higher recovery of atrazine than of other interfering related contaminants. The proposed method had good limits of detection and quantitation at 0.20 and 0.60 ng/mL, respectively. The recoveries were from 83 to 89% at two spiking levels, with relative standard deviations less than 5%. This method was successfully applied to determine the atrazine levels in environmental water samples.