Selective separation of target glycoproteins using boronate affinity imprinted copolymers: Precise identification and increase the number of recognition sites

The recognizing sites numbers and selectivity limitation of the sorbents itself is the main reason for the difficulty in increasing the target glycoproteins adsorption amount in the separation system. In this work, a new kind of porous block imprinted copolymers (BA-MF-CD-BA) with abundant boronic acid recognizing sites were firstly fabricated facilely synthesized through a in situ cross-linking copolymerization and host–guest interaction for specific separation of ovalbumin (OVA). The single boronate affinity recognizing sites are relatively difficult for selective capture glycoproteins of low concentration. This is because of that the single imprinted recognizing sites are generally related to the low adsorption performance and weak affinity. For solve these limitations, the high-density boronic acid recognizing sites were considered to grafted on the surface of sorbents. Firstly, the functional monomer 4-vinylphenylboronic acid (4-VBA) were used to prepare the matrix of boronate affinity copolymers with β-cyclodextrins (CDs). Subsequently, the CDs as a a linker to graft boronate affinity imprinted recognizing sites based adamantane (Ad) inclusion derivative, which can effectively increase the numbers of boronic acid recognizing sites. Owing to the abundant boronic acid recognizing sites synergistic binding, the as-prepared BA-MF-CD-BA exhibited high adsorption capacity towards OVA, which are approximately 3.5 orders higher than the affinity of single boronate affinity sorbents. Combining these excellent properties, BA-MF-CD-BA exhibit fast adsorption kinetics (30 min) and large adsorption capacities (129.12 mg g−1, pH = 8.0) at 298 K, and the existence of an evenly chemisorption monolayer is confirmed. Moreover, the high recyclability (after 8 cycles, 6.24% loss) demonstrated the BA-MF-CD-BAs’ practical application potential. In addition, BA-MF-CD-BA exhibited excellent selective adsorption performance of OVA from complex practical samples. This is because of that the high-density boronate affinity imprinted recognizing sites and the nanoporous structure of the imprinted copolymers matrix. Consequently, the high density boronate affinity imprinted copolymer can be an attractive option for selective enriching glycoproteins from practical samples.