Uptake and translocation monitoring of imidacloprid to chili and tomato plants by molecularly imprinting extraction - ion mobility spectrometry

Abstract The degradation of imidacloprid in soil and its uptake and translocation to chili and tomato plants was evaluated, as a proof of concept, of the possibilities of the combination of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) for a fast and sensitive bioprocesses monitoring tool. To do it, a method based on the selective extraction of imidacloprid from soil and plant materials was developed. In the selected conditions, the MIP-IMS procedure provided a recovery of imidacloprid in soil and plant samples from 102 to 114%, for spiked concentration levels from 0.2 to 2.0 μg g−1. Precision of the methodology, expressed as the relative standard deviation (RSD)…