Abstract: The adsorptive materials which have the function of molecular recognition are becoming important as the fast emerging environmental requirements for the analysis and repair of target contaminants present at low concentrations in aqueous matrices. Here, we demonstrate a Pickering emulsion polymerization strategy to build bisphenol A (BPA) imprinted poly(methacrylic acid) microspheres without the traditional organic surfactant. In the synthesis, the only stabilizer is silica particles derived from St+Āber process. The molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres were prepared by radical polymerization in the Pickering oil/water emulsion. Both the solid stabilizers and the molecular templates were conveniently removed from the microspheres. The obtained microspheres are of regularly spherical structures and hydrophilic surfaces. The formation of molecularly imprinted sites on the microspheres was validated by the excellent recognition capability toward BPA in the rebinding and competitive binding experiments
Template and target information: bisphenol A, BPA
Author keywords: emulsion polymerization, Pickering emulsion, microsphere, molecularly imprinting, bisphenol A