Abstract: Constructing imprinting materials with high recognition and selectivity for protein is an always challenge in protein imprinting technology (PIT). In this work, upon the participating of a zwitterionic polymer chain (Poly (1-vinyl-3-sulfopropylimidazolium), PVSP), a lysozyme imprinted core-shell carbon microsphere (CFC-PVSP@MIPs) was prepared by combining template immobilization method and surface imprinting technology. The carboxyl-functionalized carbon microspheres as substrate provided the CFC-PVSP@MIPs satisfactory adsorption capacity (68.1 mg g-1), while the dopamine as a functional monomer and crosslinker allowed the imprinted microspheres to have a thin imprinted shell, thus endowing them a fast adsorption equilibrium rate (120 min). In addition, PVSP could be tightly bound to the imprinted layer through non-covalent interaction, which not only simplified the preparation process of CFC-PVSP@MIPs, but also reduced the non-specific adsorption of imprinted material on proteins. Therefore, the resulting CFC-PVSP@MIPs exhibited a more superior recognition ability towards lysozyme with imprinting factor value of 3.10, compared with the PVSP-free imprinted microsphere (imprinting factor value 1.93). Furthermore, benefiting from the characteristics of zwitterionic groups, CFC-PVSP@MIPs also revealed stronger selectivity in competitive adsorption studies of binary protein mixture samples. Consequently, the proposed strategy would be a promising and convenient way to obtain protein imprinted material with high recognition ability, thus would be conducive to further development and application of PIT
Template and target information: protein, lysozyme
Author keywords: protein imprinting, Zwitterionic polymer, Template immobilization, Surface imprinting technology, Carboxyl-functionalized carbon spheres