Magnetic molecularly imprinted conducting polymer for determination of praziquantel enantiomers in milk.

A new selective adsorbent based on magnetic molecularly imprinted conducting polymer was firstly synthetized and applied to the magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) for the determination of PZQ enantiomers in milk samples. The enantioselective separation was performed on a Chiralpak® IB column using mobile phase composed of ultrapure water : tetrahydrofuran : diethylamine (65 : 35 : 0.05, v/v/v). After MSPE optimization, in which a magnetic molecularly imprinted polypyrrole (MMIPPy) was used as adsorbent, the best conditions were: 500 µL of acetonitrile as eluent, 75 mg of MMPPy, 1000 µL of milk sample (pH adjusted to 6.5.). The analyses showed recoveries/relative standard deviation (RSD%) 79.7 ± 2.5 and 81.1 ± 2.2 for (R)-(-)-PZQ and (S)-(+)-PZQ, respectively. By computational study carried out on the molecular design of the synthesized MMIPPy, it was found that the formation of four hydrogen bonds and one π-π stacking interaction explain the formation of the PZQ-pyrrole pre-polymerization complex at the molecular level. From the analytical validation, the developed method showed to be linear in the concentration range of 0.01 to 10 µg mL-1, with correlation coefficient larger than 0.98 and RSD% values below 15%. The LOQ obtained was 0.01 µg mL-1 for both enantiomers, with RSD% and relative error below 20%. The method was successfully applied in real sheep milk samples from various local suppliers. Finally, the results showed that MMIPPy in MSPE is an economical, simple and easy-to-perform technique.

Elucidation of the chromatographic enantiomer elution order for praziquantel: An experimental and theoretical assessment.

In this work, we have studied both experimentally and theoretically the praziquantel (PZQ) chiral discrimination. According to the main results, the enantioseparation of PZQ was efficiently optimized by HPLC on the reverse phase from the Chiralpak IB column, which has cellulose tris (3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) (CDMPC) as a chiral selector. The thermodynamic and structural parameters obtained via density functional theory (DFT) calculations pointed out the chiral discrimination as well as the enantiomeric elution order of PZQ, thus elucidating the experimental data and validating our proposed method. Finally, the hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking interactions played a key role in the discrimination between the PZQ diastereomeric complexes formed.

Assessment of the Performance of Solid Phase Extraction Based on Pipette Tip Employing a Hybrid Molecularly Imprinted Polymer as an Adsorbent for Enantioselective Determination of Albendazole Sulfoxide.

Herein, an organic-inorganic hybrid molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was successfully synthesized with albendazole sulfoxide (ABZSO) as a template and 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate, a bifunctional group compound, as a single cross-linking agent. In this study, a simple method using HPLC-DAD was developed for the determination of ABZSO enantiomers in human urine using pipette tip-based molecularly imprinted polymer solid phase extraction (PT-MIP-SPE). Enantioseparation with satisfactory retention times (5.17 and 7.09 min), acceptable theoretical plates (N = 4,535 and 5,091) and strong resolution (Rs = 5.45) was performed with an Agilent® Eclipse Plus C18 (100 mm × 4.6 mm, 3.5 µm) coupled with a Chiralpak® IA column (100 mm × 4.6 mm, 3 µm), a mixture with ethanol:water (50:50, v/v) as the mobile phase, temperature at 40°C, flow rate at 0.9 mL min-1 and λ = 230 nm. Thereafter, certain parameters affecting the PT-MIP-SPE were investigated in detail and the better conditions were: 300 µL of water as washing solvent, 500 µL of ethanol:acetic acid (9:1, v/v) as eluting solvent, 20 mg of MIP, 500 µL of human urine at pH 9 and no addition of NaCl. Recoveries/relative standard deviation (RSD%) for (R)-(+)-ABZSO and (S)-(-)-ABZSO were 78.2 ± 0.2% and 69.7 ± 1.7%, respectively.

Functional polyaniline/multiwalled carbon nanotube composite as an efficient adsorbent material for removing pharmaceuticals from aqueous media.

The composite polyaniline/multiwalled carbon nanotube (PAni/MWCNT, 1:0.1 w/w) was developed with the intention of binding the adsorbent properties of two materials and using it to adsorb pharmaceuticals from aqueous media. PAni/MWCNT was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetry, infrared spectroscopy, pH at the point of zero charge, and the effect on the surface wettability of the material. As proof of concept, adsorption studies were carried out using meloxicam (MLX) as the pharmaceutical and it was evaluated as a function of pH, temperature, ionic strength, contact time and variation in concentration. Kinetics and isothermal models were applied to evaluate the mechanism of the adsorption process. The best MLX adsorption result was at pH 2 with 6 min of contact with PAni/MWCNT. The kinetics models that fitted the experimental data were pseudo-second order and Elovich and the kinetics model was the dual-site Langmuir-Freundlich. Both models suggest that the adsorption occurs by the chemical nature of the surface and in the pores of the energetically heterogeneous composite. The PAni/MWCNT presented an adsorption capacity of 221.2 mg g-1, a very good value when compared with the literature and can be used to remove pharmaceuticals from aqueous environments.