Synthesis of magnetic nanocomposite based on molecularly imprinted polymer and its performance evaluation as adsorbents in the analysis of antibiotic cephalexin

The purpose of this study is the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) selective to cephalexin. The three-dimensional molecularly imprinted polymer networks were synthesized by radical polymerization of the template: cephalexin, the functional monomer: methacrylic acid and the cross-linker: ethylene glycol di-methacrylate. Then, during the extraction process, the template was separated and thus, imprinted nano pore polymer network was prepared. Synthetic polymer properties were investigated by infrared spectra (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. Cephalexin was extracted by magnetic dispersive solid-phase extraction and determined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique. Various parameters which could affect the extraction performance were optimized to achieve the high recovery rates. Under the optimal conditions, the limit of detection 0.005 µg mL-1 and the relative standard deviation (RSD) 3.18% were obtained. The calibration curve was determined in the range of 0.01-15 µg mL-1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.996. The results showed that this method has efficiency and high repeatability for measuring and separating trace cephalexin in real samples.