Abstract
Different kinds of deep eutectic solvents (DES) based on choline chloride (ChCl) and ionic liquids (ILs) based on 1-methylimidazole were used to modify Fe3O4/molecularly imprinted polymers (Fe3O4/MIPs), and the resulting materials were applied for the rapid purification of alkaloid isomers (theobromine and theophylline) from green tea with magnetic solid-phase extraction (M-SPE). The M-SPE procedure was optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM) to analyze the maximum conditions. The materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FI-IR) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Compared to the ILs-Fe3O4/MIPs, the DESs-Fe3O4/MIPs were developed for the stronger recognition and higher recoveries of the isomers (theophylline and theobromine) from green tea, particularly DES-7-Fe3O4/MIPs. With RSM, the optimal recovery condition for theobromine and theophylline in the M-SPE were observed with ratio of methanol (80%) as the washing solution, methanol/acetic acid (HAc) (8:2) as the eluent at pH 3, and an eluent volume of 4 mL. The practical recoveries of theobromine and theophylline in green tea were 92.27% and 87.51%, respectively, with a corresponding actual extraction amount of 4.87 mg•g-1 and 5.07 mg•g-1. Overall, the proposed approach with the high affinity of Fe3O4/MIPs might offer a novel method for the purification of complex isomer samples.