Synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymer based on cooperative imprinting for enrichment of gallic acid in Puer tea

Abstract The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for gallic acid (GA) was prepared based on the cooperative imprinting of boronate affinity interactions and hydrogen bond. The fabricated MIP were designed by the polymerization of template with co‐functional monomer, 3‐acrylamidophenylboronic acid (AAPBA) and methacrylic acid (MAA). The characteristics of the resulting polymer (AAPBA‐ co ‐MAA MIP) were tested by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and nitrogen adsorption–desorption. Bonding performance demonstrated that the AAPBA‐ co ‐MAA MIP possessed the excellent recognition ability in the incubation solution with pH 7.4 and presented higher adsorption capacity, faster adsorption rate and satisfactory selectivity for GA. Additionally, the AAPBA‐ co ‐MAA MIP revealed the good applications in the separation and enrichment of GA from Puer tea, and the amount of GA enriched by them was determined to be 2.75 mg g −1 . This work suggested that the integration of cooperative imprinting strategy between covalent and non‐covalent would be an effective way to improve the specific recognition performance of the MIP.