Selective silica‐based sorbent materials synthesized by molecular imprinting for adsorption of pharmaceuticals in aqueous matrices

The presence of pharmaceuticals in aqueous environmental matrices often requires efficient and selective preconcentration procedures. Thus, silicas (SILs) were synthesized by a molecular imprinting technique using an acid‐catalyzed sol‐gel process and the following drugs as templates: fluoxetine, gentamicin, lidocaine, morphine, nifedipine, paracetamol, and tetracycline. The materials were subjected to sorbent extraction assisted by ultrasonic treatment to remove the drugs and the consequent formation of molecular imprinted cavities. The surface area of the resulting materials ranged from 290 to 960 m²/g. Adsorption tests were performed with the molecular imprinting phases. In terms of the potential selectivity, the SILs were subjected to the adsorption of drugs from samples such as potable and surface water. The adsorption capacity remained in the range between 55 and 65% for both matrices, while for the nonimprinted SIL it remained between 15 and 20%.     

分子印迹溶胶-凝胶材料的制备及应用

分子印迹技术是制备对特定分子具有选择性识别的聚合物的技术。分子印迹技术与溶胶-凝胶过程相结合,可设计多孔无机主体,增强分子识别能力,并具有极好的热稳定性和水解稳定性。改变溶胶-凝胶过程的条件,可制备具有最佳孔隙率和表面积,并用于分离复杂的混合物、选择性吸附富集模板分子(或目标分子)、催化、微合成器应用的分子印迹溶胶-凝胶材料。综述了溶胶．凝胶技术和分子印迹技术的特点,分子印迹溶胶-凝胶技术和分子印迹溶胶．凝胶材料的概念、基本原理、制备方法及应用。     

Synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers via ring-opening metathesis polymerization for solid-phase extraction of bisphenol A

The use of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) prepared by ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) for bisphenol A (BPA) was reported in this article. The resulting MIPs have high imprinting and adsorption capacities, and can be used for separation and determination of BPA in environmental water samples. The successful application of ROMP in the molecular imprinting field is described here. For the first time, two cross-linkers (dicyclopentadiene and 2,5-norbornadiene) and two Grubbs catalysts (first and second generation) were investigated to compare their effects on the binding performance of MIPs. The ROMP technique is able to create the imprinted polymers within 1 h under mild conditions. Furthermore, it can provide MIPs with obvious imprinting effects towards the template, very fast template rebinding kinetics, high binding capacity and appreciable selectivity over structurally related compounds. The adsorption process for MIPs in this study can be completed within 45 min, which is much faster than that of bulk MIPs synthesized by traditional free-radical polymerization. The resulting imprinting polymer was evaluated for its use as a sorbent support in an off-line solid-phase extraction approach to recover BPA from diluted aqueous samples. The optimized extraction protocol resulted in a reliable MISPE method suitable for selective extraction and preconcentration of BPA from tap water, human urine and liquid milk samples. This article demonstrates the practical feasibility of the MIPs prepared via ROMP as solid-phase extraction materials.     

Novel nylon-supported organic-inorganic hybrid membrane with hierarchical pores as a potential immobilized metal affinity adsorbent

Chitosan-based porous organic-inorganic hybrid membranes supported by microfiltration nylon membranes were prepared, in which gamma-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) was used as an inorganic source as well as crosslinking reagent. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) with different molecular weight and content was used as imprinting molecule for morphology control. In situ crosslinking of chitosan and simultaneous polymerization of GPTMS in PEG template environment endowed the hybrid membrane with specific characteristics. Distinct hybrid effect between chitosan (CS) and GPTMS was revealed by shifting in X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, decomposition in simultaneous thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG/DSC) testing. As manifested by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the molecular weight and content of PEG had remarkable effect on the resulting surface morphology of the hybrid membrane and a given surface morphology could be obtained by extracting of the imprinted PEG molecular. Among three types of porogen used: PEG 400, PEG 4000 and PEG 20000, only PEG 20000 could result in a porous surface. Moreover, a special porous surface with three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structure-in-structure pore fashion was obtained when content of PEG 20000 was controlled at 15%. Experimental results also showed that the hybrid membrane had low swelling ratio and high stability in acidic solution. After conveniently coordinated with copper ions, the porous metal chelating hybrid membrane could effectively adsorb the model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA). As expected, the hybrid membrane imprinted with 15% PEG 20000 had remarkably high copper ion binding and BSA adsorption capacity, which might result from the large surface area, high ligand density and suitable interconnected 3D hierarchical porous surface.     

Preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers based on magnetic nanoparticles for the selective extraction of protocatechuic acid from plant extracts

In this study, highly selective core–shell molecularly imprinted polymers on the surface of magnetic nanoparticles were prepared using protocatechuic acid as the template molecule. The resulting magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and vibrating sample magnetometry. The binding performances of the prepared materials were evaluated by static and selective adsorption. The binding isotherms were obtained for protocatechuic acid and fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model and Freundlich isotherm model. Furthermore, the resulting materials were used as the solid‐phase extraction materials coupled to high‐performance liquid chromatography for the selective extraction and detection of protocatechuic acid from the extracts of Homalomena occulta and Cynomorium songaricum with the recoveries in the range 86.3–102.2%.     

多壁碳纳米管表面对硝基苯酚印迹复合材料的制备与吸附性能

以多壁碳纳米管表面接枝的L-苯丙氨酸为结合位点, 甲基丙烯酸为功能单体, 乙二醇二甲基丙烯酸酯为交联剂, 采用沉淀聚合技术, 在碳纳米管表面制备了对硝基苯酚印迹复合材料. 采用红外光谱和扫描电镜研究了该印迹复合材料的结构和形貌, 结果表明, 在碳纳米管表面接枝了一层稳定的印迹材料. 采用高效液相色谱研究了该印迹材料的等温吸附性能, 结果表明, 该印迹材料对模板分子具有较大的吸附容量(Qmax=80.5 μmol/g)和良好的选择吸附性能(选择因子达2.5). 以该印迹材料作为固相萃取吸附剂, 研究了它对对硝基苯酚和其它结构类似物混合溶液的动态吸附性能, 结果表明, 印迹复合材料对对硝基苯酚的吸附容量不受结构类似物浓度的影响, 能较好地应用于对硝基苯酚的分离富集检测.     

安定分子印迹聚合物的制备及应用

以安定为模板分子,通过本体聚合和沉淀聚合的方法合成了分子印迹聚合物材料,考察了交联剂、致孔剂及温度等条件对聚合物材料性能的影响。电镜扫描图片显示本体聚合得到的聚合物呈不规则形状,而沉淀聚合得到的则是微球颗粒,形状规则。吸附实验表明,聚合物微球对安定的最大吸附量约为130μg/g,对奥沙西泮和硝西泮的吸附量约为110μg/g,对安定类化合物具有较高的吸附性能和选择性。通过对比合成现象和聚合物性能,最终选用以DVB为交联剂、乙腈为致孔剂合成的聚合物微球为固相萃取材料填充固相萃取小柱,从饲料及猪尿样品中选择性地分离、富集痕量安定类药物。结合高效液相色谱法检测,奥沙西泮、硝西泮和安定3种药物在0.1～20 mg/L范围内线性良好,相关系数为0.999 6～0.999 9,检出限(S/N=3)为0.03～0.08 mg/L,加标回收率为66%～79%。该方法为安定类药物的检测提供了一种新途径。     

The application of pseudo template molecularly imprinted polymer to the solid-phase extraction of cyromazine and its metabolic melamine from egg and milk

The combination of molecularly imprinted polymer with high performance liquid chromatography has been developed to determine cyromazine and its metabolic melamine in some samples. However, the potential risk of template leakage used in molecularly imprinted polymer is a major disadvantage. To solve this problem, 2-(4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazin-2-ylamino) ethanethiol disulfide, a molecule that shares the similar imprinting sites with cyromazine and melamine, was selected as pseudo template to prepare molecularly imprinted polymer. Methacrylic acid, ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate and toluene were selected as functional monomer, crosslinker and porogen, respectively. The molecular recognition property and binding capability of cyromazine and melamine were evaluated by adsorption test and Scatchard analysis. The results showed that the molecularly imprinted polymer based on pseudo template had more excellent affinity and selectivity for cyromazine and melamine. The resulting molecularly imprinted polymer was used as a solid-phase extraction material to enrich cyromazine and melamine in egg and milk samples for high performance liquid chromatography analysis. The solid-phase extraction process was carefully optimized. It was found that when different concentration of cyromazine and melamine standards were spiked into samples, satisfactory recovery rate of cyromazine and melamine were obtained as 85.6-98.8% with relative standard deviation <5.5%.     

粉煤灰基氧氟沙星分子印迹聚合物的制备及其应用

以工业废料粉煤灰微球为基质,氧氟沙星 (OFL) 为模板分子,采用表面印迹法制备印迹材料MIP。通过紫外光谱法结合理论分析选择实验条件,并对该印迹材料结构、吸附行为进行研究。结果表明,该印迹材料对氧氟沙星具有良好的特异识别性和优良的亲和性。与以硅胶为载体制备的印迹聚合物相比,该材料吸附容量更高和印迹效果更好。将其作为固相萃取填料对鸡产品进行分离富集,与C18柱相比,分离富集效果更好。结合UPLC,对实际样品中氧氟沙星进行分析,回收率为82.0%-96.7%,相对标准偏差低于5.5%,可用于鸡产品中氧氟沙星分离分析。     

Novel molecularly imprinted polymers based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes with bifunctional monomers for solid-phase extraction of rhein from the root of kiwi fruit

A novel molecularly imprinted polymers based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes synthesized by precipitate polymerization was applied as a selective sorbent for separation and determination of rhein (4,5-dihydroxyanthraquinone-2-carboxylic acid) from the root of kiwi fruit samples coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The molecularly imprinted polymers were prepared with methacrylic acid and 4-vinylpyridine as bifunctional monomers. The chemical structure of the molecularly imprinted polymers was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. The equilibrium rebinding experiment and competitive adsorption experiment showed that these imprinted polymers exhibited good adsorption ability toward rhein. The Langmuir adsorption equilibrium constant, K(m) , and theoretical maximum adsorption capacity, Q(m) , were estimated to be 0.43 and 6.77 mg g(-1) , respectively. Compared with molecularly imprinted polymers prepared with methacrylic acid or 4-vinylpyridine solely, the molecularly imprinted polymers synthesized with bifunctional monomers showed enhanced molecular imprinting effect and higher adsorption capacity for the template rhein. The performances of the molecularly imprinted polymers utilized as solid phase extraction sorbent were investigated in detail. The molecularly imprinted polymers prepared by the method proposed in this work could successfully apply to extraction and determination of rhein from the root of kiwi fruit samples coupled with HPLC.     

Preparation of novel bovine hemoglobin surface-imprinted polystyrene nanoparticles with magnetic susceptibility

In this research, a surface imprinting strategy has been adopted in protein imprinting. Bovine hemoglobin surface-imprinted polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles with magnetic susceptibility have been synthesized through multistage core-shell polymerization system using 3-aminophenylboronic acid (APBA) as functional and cross-linking monomers. Superparamagnetic molecularly imprinted polystyrene nanospheres with poly(APBA) thin films have been synthesized and used for the first time for protein molecular imprinting in an aqueous solution. The magnetic susceptibility is imparted through the successful encapsulation of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The morphology, adsorption, and recognition properties of superparamagnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Rebinding experimental results show that poly(APBA) MIPs-coated superparamagnetic PS nanoparticles have high adsorption capacity for template protein bovine hemoglobin and comparatively low nonspecific adsorption. The imprinted superparamagnetic nanoparticles could easily reach the adsorption equilibrium and achieve magnetic separation in an external magnetic field, thus avoiding some problems of the bulk polymer.     

Molecularly imprinted macroporous monolithic materials for protein recognition

Synthetic materials that can specifically recognize proteins will find wide application in many fields.In this report,bovine serum albumin was chosen as the template protein.Acrylamide and N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide were employed as the functional and cross-linker monomers,respectively.Molecularly imprinted macroporous monolithic materials that can preferentially bind the template protein in an aqueous environment were prepared by combination of molecular imprinting technique and freezing/thawing preparation method.The resulted imprinted macroporous monolithic columns were evaluated by utilizing as stationary phase in high performance liquid chromatography and solid-phase extraction materials.The experimental results indicated that the imprinted macroporous monolithic column exhibited good recognition for template protein,as compared with the control protein(hemoglobin),whereas the non-imprinted polymer(prepared under the same conditions except without addition template protein) had no selective properties.     

Cost‐effective imprinting combining macromolecular crowding and a dummy template for the fast purification of punicalagin from pomegranate husk extract

The combination of molecular crowding and virtual imprinting was employed to develop a cost‐effective method to prepare molecularly imprinted polymers. By using linear polymer polystyrene as a macromolecular crowding agent, an imprinted polymer recognizable to punicalagin had been successfully synthesized with punicalin as the dummy template. The resulting punicalin‐imprinted polymer presented a remarkable selectivity to punicalagin with an imprinting factor of 3.17 even at extremely low consumption of the template (template/monomer ratio of 1:782). In contrast, the imprinted polymer synthesized without crowding agent, did not show any imprinting effect at so low template amount. The imprinted polymers made by combination of molecular crowding and virtual imprinting can be utilized for the fast separation of punicalagin from pomegranate husk extract after optimizing the protocol of solid‐phase extraction with the recovery of 85.3 ± 1.2%.     

扑热息痛分子印迹聚合物应用于固相萃取的研究

以扑热息痛为印迹分子,丙烯酰胺为功能单体,乙二醇二甲基丙烯酸酯为交联剂合成了棒状的印迹聚合物;把其装于自制的固相萃取柱中,研究了以乙腈和水为溶剂时扑热息痛在柱上的保留行为;通过优化清洗、洗脱条件,使扑热息痛和与其具有相似结构的非那西丁、对叔丁基苯酚在柱上得到了很好的分离;同时也测定了治疗感冒的药物海王银得菲中扑热息痛的含量,其回收率可达94．3％．     

对乙酰氨基酚在分子印迹膜修饰玻碳电极上的电化学行为及测定

以对乙酰氨基酚（PCT）为模板分子,甲基丙烯酸为功能单体,采用光引发原位聚合法在玻碳电极（GCE）表面聚合成膜,以甲醇-甲酸将模板分子洗脱,制得对乙酰氨基酚分子印迹膜修饰电极（MIP-GCE）,建立了该电极直接测定PCT的分析方法。结果表明,该传感器具有较高的选择性和灵敏度,PCT浓度在5.0×10-5~1.0×10-3 mol?L-1范围内与其峰电流呈良好的线性关系,检出限为1.4×10-6 mol?L-1。应用该法测定药物中PCT的含量,在干扰物质共存情况下的回收率为96%~105%。     

Molecularly imprinted polymer for solid-phase extraction of rutin in complicated traditional Chinese medicines

In the present work, an improved and direct approach for the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) was proposed. The MIPs were prepared based on bulk polymerization by water-bath heating and ultrasonic elution of the template, using rutin as the template, acrylamide (AM) as the functional monomer and 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the cross linker. Molecularly imprinted polymers prepared by other elution methods, including microwave-assisted extraction and conventional Soxhlet extraction, were used for comparison and the results showed that the ultrasonic elution method is the best. The synthesized MIPs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to evaluate the adsorption properties and recognition mechanism of the MIPs. Structurally similar compounds including quercetin and genistein were utilized for verifying the molecular selectivity and characterizing the recognition capability of the MIPs. The MIPs were used as a sorbent for the solid phase extraction of rutin, and the resultant cartridge showed a good extraction performance. Thus, a molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) procedure for selective pre-concentration of rutin from complicated traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) samples was proposed. Various elution parameters that affect the adsorption capacity of the polymer were evaluated to optimize the selective pre-concentration of rutin. The characteristics of the MISPE method were validated by HPLC. The recoveries ranged from 85% to 91% for TCMs, which demonstrated that this MISPE-HPLC method could be applied to pre-concentrate and determinate rutin directly from complicated TCM samples in the presence of other interfering substances.     

活性自由基聚合法制备多壁碳纳米管表面槲皮素分子印迹聚合物及其应用

为了制备能有效分离富集药草中槲皮素的固相萃取柱,以丙烯酰胺(AM)修饰的碳纳米管为载体,三硫代碳酸酯(DBTTC)为可逆加成-断裂链转移剂(RAFT试剂),槲皮素为模板,甲基丙烯酸(MAA)为功能单体,乙二醇二甲基丙烯酸酯(EGDMA)为交联剂,乙腈为致孔剂,制备了槲皮素分子印迹聚合物,采用红外光谱、扫描电镜和热重分析对印迹材料进行表征,通过高效液相色谱(HPLC)研究聚合物的吸附性能和对底物的特异性识别能力。结果表明,通过活性自由基聚合法合成的多壁碳纳米管表面槲皮素分子印迹聚合具有更好的形态结构和吸附性能,且对槲皮素有很好的特异性识别能力。     

Sol-gel polymerization of silylated amino acids around a protein template yields selective biomimetic imprints

The development of artificial receptors able to selectively recognize a target protein is of particular interest in separation, diagnostics, and therapeutics fields. Herein, we disclose a method to prepare biomimetic and functionalized protein imprints in biocompatible conditions avoiding any protein denaturation. For that purpose, a set of different hybrid silylated amino acid derivatives were synthesized and used without tetraethyl orthosilicate to prepare our molecularly imprinted polymers, allowing to reduce to a minimum of the silicon amount, in order to obtain imprints made almost entirely of amino acids to mimic paratope surfaces of antibodies. Such functional building blocks were polymerized on the surface of magnetic silica nanoparticles at pH 8.5 in ultrapure water in the presence of two globular proteins: cytochrome C or lysozyme. The resulting imprinted hybrid materials were evaluated for their adsorption capacity, specificity, and selectivity by quartz-crystal microbalance with dissipation and magnetic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) assays. High imprinting factors of 8.7 were measured for these biomimetic hybrid materials (corresponding to approximately 4000 and 450 ng of protein per cm² immobilized on molecularly imprinted polymers and non-imprinted polymer nanoparticles, respectively), representing a significant breakthrough in sol-gel-based molecular imprinting materials. Moreover, competition experiments performed by magnetic ELISA (mELISA) show very good specificity of our imprints at the usual concentrations of ELISA measurements.     

Ordered macroporous quercetin molecularly imprinted polymers: Preparation,characterization, and separation performance

Ordered macroporous molecularly imprinted polymers were prepared by a combination of the colloidal crystal templating method and the molecular imprinting technique by using SiO₂ colloidal crystal as the macroporogen, quercetin as the imprinting template, acrylamide as the functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross‐linker and tetrahydrofuran as the solvent. Scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements show that the ordered macroporous molecularly imprinted polymers have a more regular macroporous structure, a narrower pore distribution and a greater porosity compared with the traditional bulk molecularly imprinted polymers. The kinetic and isothermal adsorption behaviors of the polymers were investigated. The results indicate that the ordered macroporous molecularly imprinted polymers have a faster intraparticle mass transfer process and a higher adsorption capacity than the traditional bulk molecularly imprinted polymers. The ordered macroporous molecularly imprinted polymers were further employed as a sorbent for a solid‐phase extraction. The results show that the ordered macroporous molecularly imprinted polymers can effectively separate quercetin from the Gingko hydrolysate.     

Preparation of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers by atom transfer radical polymerization for the rapid extraction of avermectin from fish samples

A novel and highly efficient approach to obtain magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers is described to detect avermectin in fish samples. The magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were synthesized by surface imprinting polymerization using magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotubes as the support materials, atom transfer radical polymerization as the polymerization method, avermectin as template, acrylamide as functional monomer, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker. The characteristics of the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were assessed by using transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometry, X‐ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis. The binding characteristics of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers were researched through isothermal adsorption experiment, kinetics adsorption experiment, and the selectivity experiment. Coupled with ultra high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry, the extraction conditions of the magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers as adsorbents for avermectin were investigated in detail. The recovery of avermectin was 84.2–97.0%, and the limit of detection was 0.075 μg/kg. Relative standard deviations of intra‐ and inter‐day precisions were in the range of 1.7–2.9% and 3.4–5.6%, respectively. The results demonstrated that the extraction method not only has high selectivity and accuracy, but also is convenient for the determination of avermectin in fish samples.