Molecularly imprinted polymers for sample preparation: A review

Construction of natural polymeric imprinted materials and their applications in water treatment: A review

Molecularly imprinted materials (MIMs) have been widely used in various fields, including water treatment, chemical sensing, and biotechnology, because of their specific recognition and high selectivity. MIMs are usually obtained via two successive steps, namely, (1) copolymerization and crosslinking reactions of the preassembled complex of comonomers and a specific target compound (2) and thorough removal of template molecules. Some functional polymers are directly used as supporting materials and functional groups assembled with target compound are provided to simplify the preparation of MIMs. Natural polymers, such as chitosan, cyclodextrin, sodium alginate, starch, cellulose, lignin and their derivatives, are good candidates because of their environmentally friendly properties, low costs, and abundant active functional groups. In this study, different methods for the preparation of natural polymeric MIMs were reviewed in terms of the construction of microscopic binding cavities and macroscopic visible condensed structures with different shapes. Natural polymeric MIMs in water treatment applications, such as adsorption and detection of various pollutants from aqueous solutions, were summarized. Prospects on the development of novel and high-performance natural polymeric MIMs were discussed to overcome the difficulties in their preparation and applications.

Detection of Mycotoxins in Food Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: A Review

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by fungi that contaminate many important crops worldwide. Humans are commonly exposed to mycotoxins through the consumption of contaminated food products. Mycotoxin contamination is unpredictable and unavoidable; it occurs at any point in the food production system under favorable conditions, and they cannot be destroyed by common heat treatments, because of their high thermal stability. Early and fast detection plays an essential role in this unique challenge to monitor the presence of these compounds in the food chain. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an advanced spectroscopic technique that integrates Raman spectroscopic molecular fingerprinting and enhanced sensitivity based on nanotechnology to meet the requirement of sensitivity and selectivity, but that can also be performed in a cost-effective and straightforward manner. This Review focuses on the SERS methodologies applied to date for qualitative and quantitative analysis of mycotoxins based on a variety of SERS substrates, as well as our perspectives on current limitations and future trends for applying this technique to mycotoxin analyses.

Magnetic imprinted nanoparticles with synergistic tailoring of covalent and non-covalent interactions for purification and detection of procyanidin B2

A synergistic imprinting strategy of covalent and non-covalent interactions is proposed to prepare magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (DI-MMIPs) for highly selective separation of procyanidin B2 (PC) from grape seed samples. Dopamine and 3-amino-phenylboronic acid as cooperative functional monomers endow the imprinted sites with synergistic tailoring. Benefiting from the synergistic effect, the DI-MMIPs exhibit enhanced imprinting performance with high adsorption capacity (27.71 mg g^-1), fast kinetic equilibrium time (within 30 min), outstanding selectivity (IF = 5.8, SC > 3.2), and satisfactory regeneration ability. In addition, the DI-MMIPs possess good magnetism, uniform morphology with typical core-shell structure, and stable crystallization. Furthermore, the established DI-MMIPs coupled with HPLC-UV (~ 280 nm) method has a wide linearity range of 0.05-200 μg mL^-1 with correlation coefficient of 0.9997, high recoveries (> 93.1%) with RSDs from 2.9 to 5.5%, and low LOD (0.0008 μg mL^-1). Consequently, this work provides an effective and easily tailored way to fabricate magnetic imprinted nanomaterials with both rapid recognition rate and high selectivity and thus holds great promise to realize the extraction and detection of PC from real samples.

Quick, Easy, Cheap, and Effective Method for the Synthesis of Rugged Magnetic Molecularly Imprinted Stir-Bars

This contribution describes a fast and facile method for fabrication of robust magnetic stir-bars composed of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) combined with magnetite particles. This was achieved through a prior optimization of the protocol presented here, in particular, the selection of cross-linker and porogen suited for obtaining a durable monolithic magnetic stir-bar. In-house prepared magnetite nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄) are used as magnetic core, coating them with molecularly imprinted polymers through a simple process of bulk polymerization. Procedures for magnetite synthesis, preparation of polymerization mixture, stir-bar synthesis, and analytical application are described.

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

Drug residues, organic dyes, heavy metals, and other chemical pollutants not only cause environmental pollution, but also have a serious impact on food safety. Timely and systematic summary of the latest scientific advances is of great importance for the development of new detection technologies. In particular, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) can mimic antibodies, enzymes and other biological molecules to recognize, enrich, and separate contaminants, with specific recognition, selective adsorption, high affinity, and strong resistance characteristics. Therefore, MIPs have been widely used in chemical analysis, sensing, and material adsorption. In this review, we first describe the basic principles and production processes of molecularly imprinted polymers. Secondly, an overview of recent applications of molecularly imprinted polymers in sample pre-treatment, sensors, chromatographic separation, and mimetic enzymes is highlighted. Finally, a brief assessment of current technical issues and future trends in molecularly imprinted polymers is also presented.

Determination of bisphenol A: Old problem, recent creative solutions based on novel materials

Bisphenol A is a synthetic compound widely used in industry, in the production of polycarbonate, epoxy resins, and thermal paper, among others. Its annual production is estimated at millions of tons per year, demonstrating its importance. Despite its wide application in various everyday products, once in the environment (due to its disposal or leaching), it has high toxicity to humans and animal life, and this problem has been well known for years. Given this problem, many researchers seek alternatives for its monitoring in matrices such as natural water, waste, food, and biological matrices. For this, new advanced materials have been developed, characterized, and applied in creative ways for the preparation of samples for the determination of bisphenol A. This article aims to present some of these important and recent applications, describing the use of molecularly imprinted polymers, metal and covalent organic frameworks, ionic liquids and magnetic ionic liquids, and deep eutectic solvents as creative solutions in sample preparation for the long-standing problem of bisphenol A determination.

Development of an eco-friendly fluorescence nanosensor based on molecularly imprinted polymer on silica-carbon quantum dot for the rapid indoxacarb detection

Rapid and efficient detection of indoxacarb (IXC), a common chemical contaminant, in environmental and biological samples is necessary. In this work, a modern optical sensor was developed for IXC, based on environmentally friendly molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) coated on silica-carbon quantum dots (SiCQDs). A hydrothermal method was used to prepare highly fluorescence SiCQDs and, subsequently, MIP formed on surface (MIP@SiCQDs) using a sol-gel method. A linear relationship between the fluorescence quenching effect and increased IXC concentration was found for the range of 4-102 nM, under the optimal conditions, with a 1 nM detection limit. Precisions was of 4.5 and 2.3% for five replicate detections at 21 and 60 nM IXC, respectively. Applicability of the sensor for IXC quantification in environmental and biological samples was verified with recoveries in the range 95-106% with a relative standard deviation of <6.0%.

A novel Wulff-type boronate acid-functionalized magnetic metal-organic framework imprinted polymer for specific recognition of glycoproteins under physiological pH

Boronate affinity molecularly imprinted materials have been widely used for the separation of glycoproteins under alkaline conditions that is not conducive to the structural stability of the protein. In this work, a kind of novel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP/TBA/MOF@Fe₃ O₄ ) was prepared via grafting self-assembled molecular team of boronic acids on the surface of the magnetic metal-organic framework core. The teamed boronate affinity was formed by 2-mercaptoethylamine and 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid for specific separation of glycoproteins under physiological pH (pH 7.4). The obtained nanoparticles show high binding capacities (337.8 mg/g), fast adsorption equilibrium time (20 min), and good specificity (imprinting factor, 4.52) for glycoproteins under physiological pH. Furthermore, the prepared imprinted polymer still shows good adsorption capacity for glycoprotein after five times of repeated use, and its adsorption capacity only dropped by 4.7%. More importantly, the prepared nanoparticles have good potential to adsorb glycoproteins from real biological samples.

Modeling of butyric acid recognition by molecular imprinted polyimide

The constitutional repeating unit structures of poly(pyromellitic dianhydride-co-4,4'-oxydianiline) or polyamiс acid, butyric acid and complexes between butyric acid and one, two or three units of polyamiс acid were calculated using the density functional theory method (DFT B3LYP) on a 6-31G(d,p) basis with the basis set superposition error (BSSE) correction in the program Gaussian 09. The optimised structures of the template and polyamiс acid allowed to establish intermolecular non-covalent interactions during imprinting and, based on the results, develop a method of polyimide-based molecularly imprinted polymer preparation using butyric acid as template. It was shown that the optimum molar ratio of reagents used for the synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymer is 1:1 (interaction energy ∆E = 43.2 kJ/mol). In the presence of a large number of polyamic acid units in prepolymerisation complexes, the self-association of polyamic acid and the steric hindrance, which reduce the stability of the complexes, occur. The simulation results are in good agreement with experimental data. When analysing the energy values and parameters of bonds of the complexes, it was shown that butyric acid interacts with carboxyl groups from units of polyamiс acid via hydrogen bonding of moderate strength. The IR spectra of a complex between structural unit of polyamic acid and butyric acid were also obtained in order to understand the intermolecular interactions responsible for the molecular recognition. According to the IR spectra, it was shown that the vibrations of the C=O and O-H groups of butyric acid and polyamic acid participating in the interaction are weakened; their vibration frequencies are reduced. The polyimide structure was also constructed in the work. It was shown that two polyimide chains interact with each other due to hydrogen bonds between the hydrogen atoms of the benzene rings and the oxygen of the imide groups.

Synthesis and characterization of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for solid-phase extraction of the antidiabetic gliclazide from human plasma

Gliclazide is a sulfonylurea frequently prescribed for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus in elderly patients and for patients with chronic renal or hepatic diseases. Even though it is considered a safer alternative, the drug can provoke side effects in some patients, especially hypoglycemia, due to the high interindividual variability. Therefore, the quantification of gliclazide in biological samples is usually recommended in order to assure efficacy and safety of the pharmacotherapy. However, due to the complexity of biological matrices, therapeutic monitoring can be very challenging, especially in the sample preparation step. For that reason, the synthesis and characterization of a novel and selective molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was proposed to be employed as sorbent for the extraction of gliclazide from human plasma samples by a molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) procedure. Synthesis conditions were optimized (monomer, crosslinker and porogen) and the polymer was characterized for its morphological, physicochemical and stability properties. The influence of drug concentration, solvent composition and pH on the coefficient of distribution (K_d) and imprinting factor (IF) were studied, as well as repeatability between batches and selectivity. A bioanalytical method was developed applying the developed MIP as sorbent in solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography using a Poroshell 120 C18 (100 × 4.6 mm, 4 μm) column, acetonitrile and 10 mM potassium phosphate buffer pH 3.0 (50:50) at a flow-rate of 1.2 mL/min as mobile phase, temperature of 30 °C, injection volume of 40 μL and detection at 230 nm. The best reaction yield, extraction capacity, and selectivity was obtained using 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (2-HEMA), ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and acetonitrile. The optimized MIP showed coefficient of distribution (K_d) of 59.85 μg/g, imprinting factor (IF) of 1.60, and selectivity for gliclazide and other sulfonylureas compared to possible concurrent drugs. The developed method by MISPE-HPLC-UV showed to be appropriate to determine gliclazide in human plasma samples.

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanoparticles for Selective Solid Phase Extraction of Fluvoxamine in Human Urine and Plasma

In this work, the molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (MIP-NPs) for the selective determination of fluvoxamine have been described. The polymer nanoparticles were synthesized by the polymerization of methacrylic acid as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a cross-linker, 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator and fluvoxamine as a template molecule. The MIP-NPs were characterized using techniques that included Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Imprinted fluvoxamine molecules were removed from the polymeric structure using acetonitrile in methanol (2:8; v/v) as the eluting solvent. The linear dynamic range for fluvoxamine was 10-1200 μg L-1. The developed method was successfully applied to the extraction of fluvoxamine in complex biological samples.

Effects of prepolymerization on surface molecularly imprinted polymer for rapid separation and analysis of sulfonamides in water

This work systematically investigated the effects of prepolymerization on the property of multi-templates surface molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), which was utilized to quickly and simultaneously separate and detect six sulfonamides (sulfadiazine, sulfathiazole, sulfamerazine, sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxazole and sulfadoxine) in real waters. The MIPs were prepared using the six sulfonamides as the templates, mesoporous silica supported onto the surface of magnetic graphene oxide as the carrier and 4-vinylbenzoic as the functional monomer, with and without prepolymerization of templates with functional monomer. The preparation and adsorption conditions were optimized. It was found that the adsorption capacities of the selected six sulfonamides on the MIP (pre) prepared with prepolymerization were apparently higher than those on the MIP (no pre) synthesized without prepolymerization. Subsequently, the MIPs were utilized as adsorbents for SPE of these sulfonamides, and coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the determination of sulfonamides. The developed analytical method showed outstanding applicability for the detection of trace sulfonamides in real water samples. The spiked recoveries and relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the six sulfonamides using MIP (no pre) and MIP (pre) were 73.34-99.43% and 87.37-102.34%, 2.28-7.77% and 3.18-6.49%, respectively.

Synthesis and Characterisation of a Monolithic Imprinted Column Using a Methacrylic Acid Monomer with Porogen Propanol for Atenolol Analysis

A monolithic imprinted atenolol column was constructed by in situ polymerisation using a methacrylic acid monomer and a 1 : 1 (v/v) porogen of propanol: toluene with two template: monomer: crosslinker combinations, namely, MIP 1 (1 : 4 : 20) and MIP 2 (1 : 5 : 20). Physical characterisation of the monolithic columns consisted of permeability testing, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) testing, surface area analysis (SAA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The permeability value of four monolithic columns was in the good category: MIP 1 (24.01 mD), NIP 1 (56.43 mD), MIP 2 (23.03 mD), and NIP 2 (14.47 mD). The polymerisation process of these four monolithic imprinted columns was carried out perfectly, as shown by the absence of vinyl groups (1000 cm^-1 and 900 cm^-1) during FTIR testing. Based on SAA testing, the pores of the four polymers were classified as mesopores. The best monolithic column was MIP 1, as seen from the intercolumn and intracolumn reproducibility values and a % RSD <2.0%. The MIP 1 column was selective towards atenolol, as seen from the selectivity factor, imprinting factor (IF), and resolution (Rs) values. The IF values of MIP 1 were atenolol (204.62), metoprolol (3.36), and propranolol (1.27). The Rs value between atenolol and the analogue compounds was 7.23. The MIP 1 column can be used for the analysis of atenolol in blood serum samples with an average percentage recovery rate of 94.88 ± 4.43%.

Valorization of Red Onion Peels for Quercetin Recovery Using Quercetin-Imprinted Polymer

Quercetin (QC) is one of the most prominent dietary antioxidants present in vegetables/fruits, specifically in onions that rank second in consumption following tomato. QC with proven health benefits is now largely utilized as a nutritional supplement. In this work that aims to isolate QC from red onion peels forming a huge agricultural waste, a QC-molecularly imprinted polymer (QC-MIP) in a molar ratio of 1:4:20 (QC:4-vinylpyridine:ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) was prepared thermally through bulk polymerization. Molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction (MISPE) procedures were applied for the selective pre-concentration and purification of QC from both red onion peel methanolic extract with 58% recovery and from the extract hydrolyzate with 86% recovery. The hydrolysis process increased both the QC amount as expected and the recovery yield due to changing matrix components. The results demonstrated that onion peel can easily and efficiently be converted to a valuable product, QC, using QC-MIP as SPE sorbent.

Simultaneous determination of five organophosphorus pesticide residues in different food samples by solid-phase microextraction fibers coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography

BACKGROUND

Excessive or improper use of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) may adversely affect human health through the food chain. In the present study, a simple, rapid and effective analytical method was successfully established and used for the determination of OPPs quinalphos and its analogs in different food samples.

RESULTS

Under the optimized experimental conditions, five OPPs (quinalphos, triazophos, parathion, fenthion and chlorpyrifos-methyl) exhibit a good linearity within a range of 0.02 to 2.0 μg mL^-1 . The detection limit range was 3.0 to 10.0 μg L^-1 (signal-to-noise ratio = 3). The method was successfully used to detect and quantify the residues of quinalphos and its analogs in tomato, cabbage, barley and water samples; all spiked samples gave satisfactory recovery rates for the target analytes of between 82% and 98%, with a relative SD of 3.6% to 7.8%.

CONCLUSION

The results obtained show that the proposed method is an accurate, rapid and reliable sample pre-treatment method with respect to giving a good enrichment factor and detection limit for determining quinalphos pesticide residues in different food samples. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

Synthesis of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles for selective exposure assessment of permethrin: optimization by response surface methodology

BACKGROUND

Extensive use of high-efficiency pyrethroid pesticides as pest-control agents lead to remarkable adsorption and release of these materials in soil and aquatic environment which could have serious adverse effects on water and food chain quality as well as human health. In this study, a molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesized and used as a selective sorbent in the sample preparation procedure in order to facilitate sensitive and quantitative exposure assessment of insecticide permethrin.

METHODS

Molecular imprinted nanoparticles were prepared by precipitation polymerization technique using 1:4:20 mmol ratio of the template, functional monomer, and cross-linker, respectively, as well as 80 mL of chloroform as progen solvent. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR). The optimization of critical variables in the MISPE process was done using the central composite design (CCD) of the response surface methodology.

RESULTS

Quadratic regressional models were developed to correlate the response and independent variables and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) verified the excellent fitting of proposed models for experimental data. Optimum conditions for the highest MISPE yield were selected as follow: sorbent mass of 7.71 mg, sample pH 5.58 and 5.68 for cis and trans-permethrin, respectively, sample flow rate of 0.6 mL/min, as well as 5 and 3.94 mL of methanol/acetic acid at the flow rate of 2 mL/min as elution solvents for cis and trans-permethrin, respectively. Under optimized conditions, the linear range was obtained 20-120 μg/L (R2 = 0.99) and the detection limits were 5.51 and 5.72 μg/L for cis and trans-permethrin, respectively. Analysis of real samples demonstrated the high extraction efficiency of designed protocol ranging from 93.01 to 97.14 with the relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 4.51%.

CONCLUSIONS

The satisfactory results confirmed the reliability and efficiency of the proposed method for trace analysis of permethrin isomers in biological and environmental samples.

A nanocomposite fluorescent probe of polyaniline, graphene oxide and quantum dots incorporated into highly selective polymer for lomefloxacin detection

A nanocomposite fluorescent probe based on fluorescence quenching was fabricated and utilized for the detection of lomefloxacin. The fabricated probe integrated the high sensitivity of quantum dots, the excellent selectivity of molecularly imprinted polymer and the high adsorption affinity of graphene oxide and polyaniline. The probe exhibited good sensitivity, high specificity, and rapidity for lomefloxacin monitoring. Fluorescence emission was reduced linearly by lomefloxacin from 0.10 to 50.0 μg L^-1 and the probe exhibited a low limit of detection of 0.07 μg L^-1. The nanooptosensor successfully detected lomefloxacin in milk, chicken meat and egg samples. Recoveries were obtained in the range of 81.5-99.6% and the RSDs were below 7%. The results of this method agreed well with results of HPLC but provided higher sensitivity. This easily fabricated nanocomposite probe could be developed into a highly sensitive and selective optosensor to detect other organic compounds in various complex samples.

Efficiency comparison of nylon-6-based solid-phase and stir bar sorptive extractors for carbamazepine extraction

Aim: Two approaches based on molecularly imprinted polymers-stir bar sorptive extraction (MIP-SBSE) and -magnetic solid-phase extraction (MIP-MSPE) have been used for extraction of carbamazepine (CBZ) from serum samples. Methodology: In MSPE and SBSE, development was achieved by employing a polycaprolactam coating. The Cecil® chromatographic system equipped with a UV-Vis detector was used for analytical determination of CBZ. Results: The linearity of calibration curves was in the concentration ranges of 0.2–12 and 0.05–12 μg ml-1 for MIP-SBSE and MIP-MSPE, respectively. Conclusion: MIP-MSPE was selected in preference to MIP-SBSE since lower limits of detection were achievable using MIP-MSPE method. The CBZ-MIP-MSPE-HPLC-UV method was successfully applied to CBZ determination in real serum samples of patients receiving CBZ.

Novel coordination imprinted polymer monolithic column applied to the solid-phase extraction of flumequine from fish samples

In this study, a coordination imprinted polymer (CIP) solid-phase extraction (SPE) method was developed to determine the residues of flumequine (FLU) in fish samples. Silanized graphene oxide-doped CIP (SGO-CIP) monolithic column was prepared using FLU-Zn²⁺ as template in the presence of SGO. The synthesis conditions of SGO-CIP column were optimized by the response surface methodology. Under the optimum conditions, this column showed high specificity to FLU, and the adsorption capacity reached 61.74 ng mg^-1. The enrichment factor of the monolithic column was over 40-fold. Various factors affecting the extraction efficiency of SGO-CIP column during SPE were tested to achieve optimal enrichment and to reduce non-specific adsorption. FLU in fish was detected by using a high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection system. The detection limit was as low as 0.32 ng g^-1 and the recovery was as high as 95.2%, with relative standard deviations of below 5.9%. This simple and sensitive method may be applicable to the determination of FLU residues in foods.

Potential-Induced Fine-Tuning of the Enantioaffinity of Chiral Metal Phases

Concepts leading to single enantiomers of chiral molecules are of crucial importance for many applications, including pharmacology and biotechnology. Recently, mesoporous metal phases encoded with chiral information have been developed. Fine-tuning of the enantioaffinity of such structures by imposing an electric potential is proposed, which can influence the electrostatic interactions between the chiral metal and the target enantiomer. This allows the binding affinity between the chiral metal and the target enantiomer to be increased, and thus, the discrimination between two enantiomers to be improved. The concept is illustrated by generating chiral encoded metals in a microfluidic channel by reduction of a platinum salt in the presence of a liquid crystal and l-tryptophan as a chiral model template. After removal of the template molecules, the modified microchannel retains a pronounced chiral character. The chiral recognition efficiency of the microchannel can be fine-tuned by applying a suitable potential to the metal phase. This enables the separation of both components of a racemate flowing through the channel. The approach constitutes a promising and complementary strategy in the frame of chiral discrimination technologies.

Rapid microwave-assisted distillation–precipitation polymerization for the synthesis of magnetic molecular imprinted polymers coupled to HPTLC determination of perphenazine in human urine

Microwave-assisted distillation–precipitation polymerization (MWDPP) for the synthesis of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) under atmospheric pressure is reported.