Probing cavity versus surface preference of fluorescent template molecules in molecularly imprinted polystyrene microspheres

Abstract

Functional polystyrene (PS) crosslinked microbeads were developed by dispersion polymerization as fluorescent molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) having cavities with specific recognition sites. The functional azobenzene molecule modified with pyridine was self‐assembled with Pyrenebutyric acid (template molecules), and introduced during the second stage of dispersion polymerization of polystyrene. The template molecule was removed from MIP by Soxhlet using acetonitrile as solvent. Non imprinted polymer (NIP) having no template was also synthesized for comparative study. Fluorescence spectroscopy could be used as a tool to derive insight into the location of the template molecules on the MIP or NIP. The template molecules were adsorbed on the surface of the NIPs during binding studies, which was evidenced from the pyrene excimeric emission observed at 440 nm. The template binding efficiency of the NIPs were much lower compared to MIPs. Pyrene emission from MIP upon rebinding showed typical monomeric emission in the 375–395 nm range, confirming its location in isolated cavities. In rebinding studies of the template molecules, the MIPs selectively took up the template for which the cavity was designed, which demonstrated their selectivity towards template molecules. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 1558–1565

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Technology for the Advancement of Its Health Surveillances and Environmental Monitoring

“…It is responsible for the recombination and removal of template molecules thereby reducing the embedding process and migration resistance, hence improving the adsorption amount and mass transfer rate of MIPs. The carriers which are generally used are carbon nanomaterials, polystyrene microspheres, silica, magnetic nanoparticles, etc. − The imprinted material surfaces are easily controllable, and imprinted sites are readily exposed to target molecules. The complete elution of template molecules and low migration resistance at the time of selective adsorption overcomes the embedding process.…”

Recent Advances and Future Trends in the Detection of Contaminants by Molecularly Imprinted Polymers in Food Samples

“…This is conducive for the removal and recombination of template molecules, it reduces the "embedding" phenomenon and migration resistance of template molecules, and it improves both the amount of adsorption and the MIP S mass transfer rate (Carter and Rimmer, 2004;Li et al, 2006). Commonly used carriers are polystyrene microspheres (Sonawane and Asha, 2017), silica (Wang et al, 2017), carbon nanomaterials (Dai et al, 2014), magnetic nanoparticles (Ning et al, 2017), quantum dots (Yu et al, 2017), and metal-organic frameworks (Zhang et al, 2016). The surfaces of imprinted materials are easy to control, and the molecularly imprinted sites are readily exposed to targets.…”

Comparative study of capsaicin molecularly imprinted polymers prepared by different polymerization methods

“…Over the past several decades, MIT has been rapidly developed and widely used in solid phase extraction, chromatographic separation, membrane separation, and sensor areas . To date, for the preparation of MIPs, some methods were usually used such as bulk polymerization, precipitation polymerization, and surface molecular imprinting technique . Previous studies focused on the imprinting effects influenced by many factors such as polymerization temperature, pressure, solvent, and time .…”

“…[28][29][30] To date, for the preparation of MIPs, some methods were usually used such as bulk polymerization, precipitation polymerization, and surface molecular imprinting technique. [31][32][33][34][35] Previous studies focused on the imprinting effects influenced by many factors such as polymerization temperature, pressure, solvent, and time. 36,37 However, little literature was reported on the recognition properties of the polymers produced by different polymerization methods toward the target molecule.…”