A molecularly imprinted polymer for the pesticide bentazone

Polymers able to bind the pesticide bentazone were prepared by utilising th e technique of the non-covalent molecular imprinting polymerisation and usi ng different molar ratios of methacrylic acid and 4-vinylpyridine as intera cting monomers. Polymers obtained were packed in HPLC columns and the impri nting effect was studied using chloroform and acetonitrile as mobile phase. The polymer obtained from equimolar amounts of methacrylic acid and 4-viny lpyridine was found to recognise bentazone better than other polymers, both in chloroform and acetonitrile. The bentazone capacity for this stationary phase was studied considering aqueous buffers with different pH values and ionic strengths. A preliminary procedure of solid phase extraction was tes ted on aqueous samples containing a fixed amount of bentazone. Good recover ies (91-96%) and concentration factors of 3.2-15.2 were found.