Super-Paramagnetic Nanoparticles by Surface Imprinting on Graphene Oxide Modified Iron (II,III) with Application for the Determination of Ovalbumin by Absorption Spectroscopy

Protein surface imprinting produces materials capable of selective recognition and capture of proteins. Herein, a protein surface imprinted polymer on graphene oxide modified super-paramagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles is reported. The molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesized by ultrasound-assisted suspension polymerization, using ovalbumin as the template molecule, 3-aminophenylboronie acid as the functional monomer, and methylene-bis-acrylamide as the cross-linking agent. The nanoparticles were approximately 40 nanometers in size and super-paramagnetic. Moreover, these particles demonstrated considerably high adsorption capacity, fast adsorption kinetics, and selective binding affinities toward the template protein ovalbumin. The calibration curve of ovalbumin was linear from 5.0 × 10^?11 to 1.0 × 10^?10 molar. The limit of detection of ovalbumin was 2.0 × 10^?11 M. These results show that this super-paramagnetic material has potential for biological macromolecule separation and determination.