Abstract: We report the synthesis, characterization and performance evaluation of nine molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), a common antioxidant used in the food industry but is carcinogenic at high concentrations. Vinyl-functionalized imidazole and pyridine monomers were thermally cured with BHA as template, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as cross-linker, and 1,1'-azobis(cyanohexane carbonitrile) as initiator. The molar ratio of two functional monomer combinations, which can be 1-vinylimidazole (1-VI), 2-vinylpyridine (2-VP) or 4-vinylpyridine (4-VP), was varied and the polymer was cured at 60 °C for 36 h. Spectrophotometric batch-binding analyses of BHA showed that the optimum uptake was observed for 1-VI- and 4-VP-based MIPs, with a maximum binding capacity of 6.078 mg BHA per gram MIP. The observed performance was rationalized by the non-covalent interactions between the template and the functional monomers
Template and target information: butylated hydroxyanisole, BHA
Author keywords: molecularly imprinted polymer, Butylated hydroxyanisole, Batch-binding, DFT