Multifiber solid-phase microextraction using different molecularly imprinted coatings for simultaneous selective extraction and sensitive determination of organophosphorus pesticides.

Three types of molecularly imprinted solid-phase microextraction fibers were fabricated through sol-gel method using diazinon, parathion-methyl, and isocarbophos as templates, respectively, and assembled together to construct a multifiber for analysis of organophosphorus pesticides in complex matrices. The multifiber provided large extraction capacity and high imprinting factor up to 3.89. In contrast, the imprinting factor of a single fiber was around 1.6, and the multi-template imprinted coating showed no selectivity. The multifiber was applied to analyze pesticides in fruits and vegetables. The limits of detection, which ranged from 0.0052 to 0.23 µg/kg, were lower than those obtained by a single molecularly imprinted fiber, and much lower than those reported by other methods. The recoveries of five analytes in spiked apple, cucumber, Chinese cabbage, and cherry tomato samples were 75.1-123.2%. The study shows that the molecularly imprinted multifiber could achieve simultaneous selective extraction and sensitive determination of multiple targets in complex matrices for high-throughput analysis.