Effect of some polymerization methods on the imprinting performance of molecularly imprinted polymers for molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction application

Abstract

The present work describes a solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure using the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) in order to obtain a cleaner extract and high recovery from a highly complex and aqueous herbal matrix. MIPs with a similar composition of precursors were synthesized by bulk (MIPB), precipitation (MIPP) and reverse microemulsion polymerization (MIPR) methods, and the resulting MIPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The MIPs were used as sorbent in SPE procedure to study their imprinting performance in the aqueous conditions. The molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) procedure for selective extraction of gallic acid (GA) from the herbal extract was performed. MIPR have shown the superior performance with the 86% extraction of GA. It was observed that the morphology of the MIPs can be enhanced using various polymerization methods for improved SPE application.