Computational and experimental studies of magnetic molecularly imprinted sorbent with high specificity towards aceclofenac

Abstract

In this paper, the comprehensive studies were carried out to fabricate specific magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (MMIP) towards the analysis of aceclofenac from spiked plasma samples. For that purpose, the optimization step, consisting of the analysis of binding capacities of bulk polymers synthesized from ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (cross-linker) and independently used five various functional monomers, in the presence of three different templates was performed. The results revealed that the polymers build-up from allylamine or 4-vinylpyridine molecularly imprinted by aceclofenac were characterized by the highest binding capacities towards target analyte (844 ± 101 and 673 ± 56 ng g−1, respectively) but with the highest specificity for the latter one (IF = 4.42 and 8.63, respectively) when compare to non-imprinted counterparts. The theoretical analysis revealed that hydrophobic interactions between the analyte and the polymer matrix were responsible for the highest binding capacity. Then, the MMIP, containing optimized molecularly imprinted external layer, was fabricated to facilitate the process of magnetic solid phase extraction (m-SPE). The physicochemical characterization confirmed the structure of MMIP and the morphology analysis showed the specific surface area equal to 16.42 m2 g-1. The effect of various loading solutions for the total recovery of aceclofenac was studied in the m-SPE. The analysis revealed that the total recoveries of aceclofenac from standard solutions were higher than from spiked human plasma. However, in the latter one, the total recoveries were significantly improved when the plasma was diluted by water. The analysis of total recoveries verified the capability of new MMIP to serve as the selective clean-up sorbent for the determination of aceclofenac from complex samples such as human plasma.