Preparation and application of molecularly imprinted polymers for selective adsorption of tobacco specific nitrosamines

For selectively adsorbing tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared by precipitation polymerization with nicotinamide, methacrylic acid and divinyl benzene as reagents. The MIP structures were characterized and their adsorption performance was assessed. The results showed that the prepared MIPs with higher specific surface areas in NNK solutions possessed excellent adsorption efficiency (96%) and short adsorption time (30 min) for the target molecules. Furthermore, MIPs were used in an offline solid-phase extraction to selective extraction of TSNAs in tobacco leaves and the adsorption efficiency was about 100%, and the MIPs column could be reused. The standard recoveries of MIPs column for TSNAs ranged from 66% to 113%. The MIPs column was compared with online solid-phase extraction column to exhibit its potential application with the close recovery and intensity for online solid-phase extraction of TSNAs.