Preparation of an Estriol Surface Imprinted Polymer and its Adsorption Ability Evaluation

A novel molecularly imprinted polymer/magnetic chitosan microsphere (MIP/MCM) was prepared by a surface molecular imprinting technique in combination with a sol–gel process, using estriol as the template, γ-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane as the functional monomer, tetraethoxysilicane as the cross-linker, and magnetic chitosan as the support material. The adsorption ability and selectivity of the polymeric material toward estriol were evaluated. The results indicated that the prepared material had higher adsorption capacity and selectivity toward estriol than the non-imprinted polymer/MCM. The theoretical maximum adsorption capacity (Q _max) was 8.13 mg g^?1, and the equilibrium dissociation constant (K _d) was 625.0 mg mL^?1. The functionalized material had fast uptake kinetics, 83.64% of the saturated adsorption capacity was obtained within a period of 60 min, and the adsorption almost reached equilibrium within 90 min. This prepared material has potential to be used as a sorbent in solid-phase extraction (SPE) to enrich trace estriol in samples.