Insight into the morphology, pore structure and sorption properties of 4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenylacetic acid imprinted poly(acrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) sorbent

Abstract

In this paper the exploration of specific imprinted sorbent for 4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenylacetic acid (NHPA), an indicator of 3-nitrotyrosine, a biomarker of pathophysiological states, was described. The optimization of synthetic protocol, supported by theoretical studies, allowed to select NHPA imprinted poly(acrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) as the most specific polymer with imprinting factor equal to 2.27. The acrylic copolymers were characterized, revealing differences between the imprinted and non-imprinted material in the adsorption binding capacities (0.54 ± 0.12 and 0.335 ± 0.073 μmol g−1, respectively), heterogeneity indices (0.47 and 0.72), pseudo-second order kinetics constants (0.251 and 0.077 g μmol −1 min−1, respectively), and total specific surface areas (51.8 and 292.3 m2 g−1, respectively). The significant difference in the microstructure of pores was considered as the crucial factor responsible for sorption properties of analyzed materials.

Keywords

• 4-Hydroxy-3-nitrophenylacetic acid
• Molecularly imprinted polymers
• Morphology
• Physicochemical characterization