Innovative hierarchical porous hydrophilic molecularly imprinted resin for high-throughput detection of perfluorocarboxylic acids in milk using 96-well plate SPE-LC-MS/MS

The accumulation of perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) in environment and foods represents a significant threat to public health due to the long-term ingestion of contaminated food. This study introduces a novel adsorbent, the hierarchical porous hydrophilic molecularly imprinted resin (HPHMIR), which was synthesized by integrating molecular imprinting techniques with hydrophilic resins. The HPHMIR, characterized by its extensive mesoporous structure (average pore width ~9.71 nm) and favorable imprinting factors (2.6–5.0), facilitates the effective adsorption of PFCAs from complex matrices through multiple interaction mechanisms, including hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. This innovative material was employed in a 96-well plate format for solid-phase extraction (SPE), and combined with LC-MS/MS, a high-throughput method for the determination of PFCAs in milk was developed. The proposed method demonstrated exceptional performance, including excellent linearity (0.48–240 ng mL⁻¹; r ≥ 0.9986), low detection limits (0.04–0.11 ng mL⁻¹), high precision (relative standard deviation ≤ 9.9%), and satisfactory recovery (75.7–118.1%). These results highlight the efficacy of the method in extracting trace levels of PFCAs from complicated sample matrices, presenting a promising alternative for monitoring PFCA contamination and advancing public health standards.