Molecularly Imprinted Mesoporous SBA-15 Synthesized by Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization for Bisphenol A Recognition

Abstract

Ordered mesoporous material has good application potential in solid-phase extractions due to its high surface area and rapid binding kinetics. Molecularly imprinted mesoporous SBA-15 microspheres (MIP-SBA-15) with both advantages of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) and mesoporous material have been synthesized in the study. The surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization was employed in the imprinting process in order to create more homogeneous polymer layer on the surface of SBA-15. The bisphenol A (BPA) was used as imprinting template to provide selective extraction material with potential application in the BPA determinations. The results demonstrated the spherical MIP-grafted-SBA-15 with ordered mesoporous structure has been synthesized which is good for chromatographic applications. The material has good selectivity, high binding capacity and kinetics. The BPA and its analogs have less peak tailings on the MIP column in HPLC, which is attributed to the thin MIP film and less mass transfer resistance of the material. An online solid-phase extraction/HPLC experiment was established using the MIP-SBA-15 as the extraction material. In the BPA concentration range of 0.04–40 ng mL−1, a linear regression curve with R 2 > 0.9999 has been obtained. The LOD and LOQ are 30.84 and 102.79 pg mL−1, respectively. The recoveries were higher than 97 % determined using spiked tap water samples with different concentrations. It demonstrated the MIP-SBA-15 can be used in the BPA extraction from water samples with good efficiency.