Preparation of molecularly imprinted polymer for use as SPE adsorbent for the simultaneous determination of five sulphonylurea herbicides by HPLC

•A MIPs was synthesised based on pyrazosulphuron as template.•The polymers showed high adsorption capacity in n-hexane rather than porogen.•The greatest particle size was obtained when 36mL dichloromethane as porogen.•An efficient pre-treatment method was established for the analysis of PS. A high selective pre-treatment method for the analysis of sulphonylurea herbicides (SUHs) in rice grain samples based on molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) was developed. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesised with high adsorption capacity and suitable particle size using pyrazosulphuron ethyl (PS) as the template and by screening three porogens and porogen volumes. The resulting MIPs showed high selectivity for PS. The MISPE procedure was developed for the purification and enrichment of PS, bensulphuron methyl (BSM), tribenuron methyl (TBM), metsulphuron methyl (MSM) and nicosulphuron (NS) from a rice grain sample prior to reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. Average recoveries of the PS, NS, MSM and BSM were 95.6%, 88.6%, 87.8% and 89.4%, respectively, but the recovery of TBM was lower (48.2%). This pre-treatment methodology for extracting SUHs was simple and cleaner extractions. The limits of detection ranged from 10.1 to 50.0ngL−1. Five local rice grain samples were analysed by HPLC–MISPE, and PS was detected in all five samples, while BSM was detected in one sample.