Scaffold membranes for selective adsorption of α-tocopherol by phase inversion covalently imprinting technique

A molecular-imprinted membranes targeted to alpha-tocopherol (alpha-Toc) were prepared by phase inversion of polymer containing covalently bound template group to the polymer through ester group. For preparation of such polymer, a template-containing monomer, alpha-tocopherol methacrylate (alpha-TMA) was synthesized and copolymerized with acrylonitrile (AN). Phase inversion of the AN copolymer was carried out from the DMSO solution in water non-solvent. After membrane formed, removal of the template was performed in treatment with HCl acid solution. It was observed that the amounts of alpha-Toc bound to imprinted and non-imprinted membranes in ethanol/water (1:1%, v/v) were 20.8 +/- 0.4 and 2.2 +/- 0.1 mu mol/g, respectively. Scatchard analysis indicated that the imprinted membranes exhibited high affinity and good selective binding of alpha-Toc relative to its analogs, delta-Toc, and 4-chromanol (4-Chr). Evidences showed that separation was achieved with separation factor of 15.5 for alpha-Toc/4-Chr in ethanol/water 1: 1% (v/v) solution by simple filtration procedure with high flux permeation. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.