Solid phase extraction of penicillins from milk through the use of sacrificial silica beads as support for molecular imprinting

We have prepared molecularly imprinted beads with molecular recognition capability for target molecules containing the penicillanic acid substructure. They were prepared by (a) grafting mesoporous silica beads with 6-aminopenicillanic acid as the mimic template, (b) filling the pores with a polymerized mixture of methacrylic acid and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate, and (c) removing the silica support with ammonium fluoride. The resulting imprinted beads showed good molecular recognition capability for various penicillanic species, while antibiotics such as cephalosporins or chloramphenicol were poorly recognized. The imprinted beads were used to extract penicillin V, nafcillin, oxacillin, cloxacillin and dicloxacillin from skimmed and deproteinized milk in the concentration range of 5–100 μg/L. The extracts were then analyzed by micellar electrokinetic chromatography by applying reverse polarity staking as an in-capillary preconcentration step, and this resulted in a fast and affordable method within the MRL levels, characterized by minimal pretreatment steps and recoveries of 64–90 %