Preparation and characterization of core-shell structural magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers for nafcillin

The uniform core-shell nanostructured magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized using antibiotic nafcillin as a template. In this protocol, the magnetite nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by the solvothermal reaction firstly. Subsequently, the vinyl groups were grated onto silica-modified Fe3O4 surface by 3-methacryloyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane via sol-gel method. Finally, the nafcillin-MIPs film was formed on the surface of Fe3O4 @ SiO2 by the copolymerization of vinyl end group with functional monomer, methacrylic acid, cross-linking agent, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, the initiator azo-bis-isobutyronitrile and template molecule. The morphological and magnetic characteristics of the MIPs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometer. The obtained spherical magnetic MIPs with diameters of about 320 nm had good monodispersity. The static binding experiment was carried out to evaluate the properties of magnetic MIPs and non imprinted polymers (NIPs). The results demonstrated that the magnetic MIPs had high adsorption capacity to template and good selectivity. The imprinting factor and the maximum adsorption capacity of Fe3O4 @ MIPs to nafcillin were 2.46 and 50.7 mg/g, respectively. It is expected that the prepared magnetic MIPs could be used for the enrichment of nafcillin in complex samples.