Abstract: In this study, a highly sensitive and selective sample pretreatment procedure by using molecularly imprinted silica nanoparticles was developed for the extraction and determination of quercetin in red wine samples coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. The imprinted silica nanoparticles were prepared in the presence of N-acryoyl-l-aspartic acid (functional monomer), quercetin (template), azobisisobutyronitrile (initiator) and methylene bisacrylamide (cross-linker) and methanol/water (porogen) via surface-initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. Surface characterization was performed and several imprinting parameters were investigated, and the results indicated that adsorption of quercetin on the imprinted silica nanoparticles followed a pseudo-first-order adsorption isotherm with a maximum adsorption capacity at 26.4 mg/g within 60 min. The imprinted silica nanoparticles also showed satisfactory selectivity towards quercetin as compared with its structural analogues. Moreover, the imprinted nanoparticles preserved their recognition ability even after five adsorption-desorption cycles. Meanwhile, the nanoparticles were successfully applied to selective extraction of quercetin from red wine with a high recovery (99.7-100.4%). The limit of detection was calculated to be 0.058 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient 0.9996 in the range of 0.2-50 μg/mL. As a result, the developed selective extraction method by using molecular imprinting technology simplifies the sample pretreatment procedure before determination of quercetin in real samples. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Author keywords: Molecularly imprinted polymers, quercetin, Selective separation, surface-initiated polymerization