Preparation and Characterization of a Novel Surface Molecularly Imprinted Polymer for Selective Recognition of Sudan III

Abstract

In this study, a novel functionalized material for selective recognition of Sudan III was synthesized by a molecular imprinting technique in combination with a sol-gel process on the activated silica gel surface. The imprinted polymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and adsorption experiments. The results showed that this material exhibited a high adsorption capacity with selective ability toward Sudan III. Its saturated binding capacity was 12.16 mg/g. It offered a fast kinetics for the adsorption of Sudan III; 71.67% of the saturated adsorption capacity was obtained within a shaking period of 5 min, and the adsorption equilibrium was almost reached within 120 min. With good performance, this functionalized polymer was suitable as a new selective sorbent for application in solid phase extraction.

Keywords:

• characterization
• molecular imprinting technology
• sol-gel
• Sudan III

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for financial support from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Special Funded Project (No. 201003645) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31071543).