Synthesis of ractopamine molecularly imprinted membrane and its application in the rapid determination of three β-agonists in porcine urine samples

A novel molecularly imprinted membrane (MIM) with ractopamine (RAC) as the template and the hydrophilic PVDF membrane as the support was synthesized for the selective absorption of RAC and its structure analogues. The absorption behavior and selectivity of the MIM were studied. The experimental results showed that the MIM had the good selectivity to three -agonists including RAC, RIT, and formoterol (FOM) than that of nonimprinted membrane. The adsorption capacity for three compounds was above 1.88g/cm2 of per membrane. Based on the clean-up and enrichment of porcine urine samples with the MIM, a sensitive determination method of three -agonists in porcine urine samples by using MIM followed ultra performance chromatography coupled MS/MS detection was developed. The LOD and LOQ for RAC, RIT, and FOM were below 0.006 and 0.02 ng/mL, respectively. The mean recoveries, repeatability, and reproducibility of three compounds in porcine urine samples varied from 67.9 to 86.3%, from 3.3 to 10.8%, and from 5.3 to 8.5%, respectively. The presented method was applied to test 50 real porcine urine samples. It was demonstrated to be more sensitive and robust for the determination of RAC, RIT, and FOM in porcine urine.