Cellulose-incorporated imprinted materials with amphiphilic crosslinking structure for selective adsorption of bisphenol A

The development of cost-effective and easy-operate adsorbents with tunable adsorption performance is of great importance while remains a big challenge. Herein, cellulose-incorporated imprinted material (CMC-MIPs) with solvent-regulated adsorption property was designed and synthesized using the functionalized cellulose (CMC-MA) as main cross-linker with the assistance of co-crosslinking agent divinyl benzene for selective adsorption of bisphenol A (BPA). Styrene was used as functional monomer to interact with BPA through π-π stacking interaction. And CMC-MA could interact with BPA by multi-hydrogen bonding to strengthen the binding interaction. Adsorption experiments demonstrated that the obtained CMC-MIPs exhibited high adsorption capacity (16.23 mg/g) and excellent selectivity (imprinting factor: 16.07) towards BPA. And CMC-MIPs can easily adsorb BPA in aqueous solution, while release most of the adsorbed BPA in organic media (i.e., methanol or ethanol), indicating excellent solvent-regulated adsorption/release property. The developed CMC-MIPs were successfully employed for selective adsorption of BPA from milk samples with satisfactory recoveries. The proposed construction strategy will offer new sights on the fabricating the cellulose-introduced imprinted materials with selective adsorption capability for target analytes. • Cellulose-incorporated imprinted material (CMC-MIPs) were synthesized by introducing amphiphilic crosslinking structure. • Functionalized cellulose was used as main cross-linker. • CMC-MIPs showed high affinity for (BPA) in water while release most of adsorbed BPA in organic media. • CMC-MIPs were successfully applied in complicated samples with satisfactory recoveries.