Preparation and application of a poly (ionic liquid)-based molecularly imprinted polymer for multiple monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction of phenolic acids in fruit juice and beer samples

In this work, a new molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) using a poly (ionic liquid) (PIL) as a functional monomer was prepared and utilized as the extraction medium of multiple monolithic fiber solid-phase microextraction (MMF-SPME). A PIL, 1-ally-3-vinylimidazolium chloride, was used as a functional monomer, and 3,4-dihydroxybenzenepropanoic acid (DBA) and ethylene dimethacrylate were chosen as the template molecule and cross-linker, respectively, to synthesize the PIL/MIP. Under the optimized preparation conditions, the recognition coefficient of PIL-MIP for DBA was as high as 11.6. The combination of PIL/MIP-MMF-SPME and high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC/DAD) was developed for the sensitive determination of phenolic acids (PAs) in fruit juice and beer samples. Under the optimal conditions which were investigated in detail, the limits of detection (LODs, S/N = 3) for PAs in fruit juice were 0.024-0.24 μg L-1, and the related values were 0.011-0.052 μg L-1 for the beer sample. The intra-day and inter-day precision (relative standard deviations, n = 4, %) at 1.0 and 100.0 μg L-1 spiking concentration were both less than 10%. In the analysis of PAs in fruit juice and beer samples, satisfactory recoveries and repeatability were achieved. In comparison with reported approaches, the proposed method exhibited some advantages including high selectivity, convenience, satisfactory sensitivity and environmental friendliness.