Preparation and utilization of microporous molecularly imprinted polymer for sustained release of tetracycline

A polyacrylate tetracycline (TC) selective microporous molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared in three different porogenic solvents (chloroform, acetonitrile, and methanol) via precipitation polymerization, using methacrylic acid monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate crosslinker, and TC as template. In all three solvents this method produced microporous particles in the scale range (200400 nm), simply, quickly, cleanly, and in good yield. The effect of polarity of porogenic solvents on binding capacity was investigated. The imprinted polymer prepared in chloroform gave much higher binding capacity (KD = 198.6) for TC than the polymers prepared in acetonitrile (KD = 133.2) or methanol (KD = 104.7). The selectivity of imprinted polymers was evaluated by rebinding other structurally similar compounds. The results clearly indicated that the imprinted acrylate polymer exhibits an excellent selectivity toward TC, and has better ability to control the release of TC than the non-imprinted polymer.(c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013