Synthesis of chitosan-gelatin molecularly imprinted membranes for extraction of L-tyrosine

In this work, chitosan-gelatine-L-tyrosine (CS-GEL-L-tyr) molecularly imprinted membranes (MIMs) were prepared in an aqueous phase using CS and GEL as the functional polymers, L-tyrosine as an imprinting molecule, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a porogen. Removal of the template molecule L-tyrosine from the MIMs revealed binding sites that were complementary in size, shape and functional group to the template molecule L-tyrosine, which were investigated using SEM, FTIR and XRD. The effect of various significant parameters such crosslinking agent, PEG concentration and imprinting molecule content were examined and the results indicated that the obtained MIMs have special selectivity to template molecules L-tyrosine, the molecularly imprinted membrane can effectively separate L-tyrosine from other substances in the water phase, and the permeability rate of L-tyrosine was 13.42%.