Synthesis of hydrophilic SERS-imprinted membrane based on graft polymerization for selective detection of L-tyrosine

Abstract

The major limitation of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF-)-sensor membrane is its high hydrophobicity. In this study, a hydrophilic PVDF sensor membrane is synthesized by graft modification. The engineered polyvinypyrrolidone (PVP) chains are linked with copolymerized N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) and triethoxyvinylsilane (VTES) by hydrolysis condensation. Subsequently, Ag nanoparticles (NPs) are immobilized on the surface of PVDF membrane through the reduction of AgNO3, and the membrane is utilized as the SERS substrate. Meanwhile, to improve the practical detection efficiency, molecular imprinting technique (MIT) is utilized to obtain a SERS-imprinted membrane for selective detection of L-tyrosine. The morphology and property of SERS-imprinted membrane are analyzed through various techniques. The analysis results suggest that the SERS-imprinted membrane is hydrophilic and is useful for the selective detection of L-tyrosine in aqueous medium. Overall, this study establishes a novel technique for the synthesis of hydrophilic sensor membrane and boosts its applications in SERS detection.