Solid-phase extraction with a dibutylmelamine-imprinted polymer as triazine herbicide-selective sorbent

Triazine herbicide-selective polymer spheres were prepared by molecular imprinting using dibutylmelamine (DBM) as a template in suspension polymerization, and were utilized in solid-phase extraction (SPE) of atrazine. Atrazine-selective SPE was successfully demonstrated with a recovery of ca. 97% and an enrichment factor of 50, proving the good aptitude of DBM as the template species for developing a specific sorbent for triazine herbicides. It is also noteworthy that DBM-imprinted polymers have no possibility of disturbance in agrochemical analyses even if DBM remained in the polymer, which may occur by insufficient washing at the stage of removing the template to yield the binding sites, increasing the availability of imprinted polymers for practical applications.