Abstract:

The novel functional monomer N,O-bismethacryloyl ethanolamine (NOBE) was synthesized and used to
prepare molecularly imprinted polymers (ETP-MIPs) for adsorbing ethopabate by surface molecular imprinting technique
using silica gel as the support matrix and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the crosslinking agent. Three
polymerization conditions including molar ratio of template to functional monomer, molar ratio of template to crosslinking
agent and porogen type were optimized using an orthogonal array design. The type of porogen was the most important
factor, followed by the ratio of template to functional monomer and ratio of template to crosslinking agent. The best
imprinting efficiency was observed for molecularly imprinted polymers with a molar ratio of ETP to NOBE to EGDMA
of 1:2:20 using acetonitrile as the porogen. The Scatchard analysis indicated that there were two classes of binding sites in
ETP-MIPs; the equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) and apparent maximum binding capacity (Qmax) for the high affinity
sites and low affinity sites were calculated as follows: Kd1=1.608 μg/mL, Qmax1=1.101 μg/mg; and Kd2=0.109 μg/mL,
Qmax2=0.172 μg/mg, respectively.

Key words: molecularly imprinted polymers, surface molecular imprinting technology, orthogonal arrayexperiment, ethopabate