Membranes for Specific Adsorption: Immobilizing Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microspheres using Electrospun Nanofibers

FH-HES

Authors

  • Roman Büttiker
  • Jürgen Ebert
  • Christian Hinderling
  • Christian Adlhart Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW, Institute of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Einsiedlerstrasse 31, 8820 Wädenswil

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2011.182

Keywords:

Electrospinning, Filtration, Molecularly imprinted polymer, Precipitation polymerization, Raman microscopy

Abstract

Molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres were immobilized within a polymer nanofiber membrane by electrospinning. Such membranes simplify the handling of functional microspheres and provide specific recognition capabilities for solid-phase extraction and filtration applications. In this study, microspheres were prepared by precipitation polymerization of methacrylic acid and divinylbenzene as a cross-linker with the target molecule (?)-cinchonidine and then, they were electrospun into a non-woven polyacrylonitrile nanofiber membrane. The composite membrane showed specific affinity for (?)-cinchonidine which was attributed to the functional microspheres as confirmed by Raman microscopy. The target molecule capturing capacity of the composite membrane was 5 mg/g or 25 mg/g immobilized functional microsphere. No difference in target affinity was observed between the immobilized microspheres and the free microspheres. These results reveal that electrospun composite membranes are a feasible approach to immobilizing functional microspheres.

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Published

2011-03-30

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Section

Columns, Conference Reports

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