Ternary choline chloride/caffeic acid/ethylene glycol deep eutectic solvent as both a monomer and template in a molecularly imprinted polymer

A molecularly imprinted polymer based on a ternary deep eutectic solvent comprised of choline chloride/caffeic acid/ethylene glycol was prepared. The caffeic acid in the ternary deep eutectic solvent was used as both a monomer and template. The molecularly imprinted polymer based on the ternary deep eutectic solvent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis, atomic force microscopy, and elemental analysis. A series of molecularly imprinted polymers based on choline chloride/caffeic acid/ethylene glycol with different molar ratios was prepared and applied to the molecular recognition of polyphenols. A comparison of the recognition ability of molecularly imprinted polymers to polyphenols revealed that the choline chloride/caffeic acid/ethylene glycol (1: 0.4: 1, molar ratio) molecularly imprinted polymer had the best molecular recognition effect with 132 mu g/g of protocatechuic acid, 104 mu g/g of catechins, 80 mu g/g of epicatechin, and 123 mu g/g of caffeic acid in 6 h, as well as good molecular recognition ability for polyphenols from a Radix Asteris sample. These results show that the ternary deep eutectic solvent based molecularly imprinted polymer is a potential medium that can be applied to drug purification, drug delivery, and drug analysis.