Attapulgite/hydrophilic molecularly imprinted monolithic resin composite for the selective recognition and sensitive determination of plant growth regulators in cucumbers.

In this study, through in-situ polymerization process, a novel composite of attapulgite/hydrophilic molecularly imprinted monolithic resin (AT/HMIMR) were prepared in pipette tips for extraction trace plant growth regulators in cucumbers. In the preparation procedure, fibrillar attapulgite nanoparticles were embedded to increase extraction capacity, polyethyleneglycol-6000 was employed as a dual-function porogen, that acted as both the structure-directing agent of the HMIMR and the attapulgite dispersant. N-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine dihydrochloride was used as a dummy template to accurate quantification on extraction procedures. Experimental parameters of AT/HMIMR for extracting plant growth regulators from cucumbers were optimized, and the results showed that the recoveries of ranged from 92.4% to 101.1% with relative standard deviations ≤ 6.5% (n = 3). Considering its microporous monolithic column structure, multiple adsorption mechanism, and specific selectivity, AT/HMIMR shows promise for applications that require specific recognition for the analytes in real complex samples.