Caffeine molecular imprinted microgel spheres by precipitation polymerization

Imprinted uniform microgel spheres were prepared by precipitation polymerization. Acetonitrile was used as the dilute solvent with MAA as the monomer, EDMA as the crosslinker and caffeine as the print molecule. Comparison of caffeine adsorption on molecular imprinted and blank microgel spheres was made. Langmuir model was used to fit the adsorption data. It was found that the caffeine imprinted microgel spheres show specific binding sites to the target molecules. A binding study of caffeine on imprinted microgel spheres was made by Scatchard analysis; the dissociation constants (K-D) and the maximum binding capacity were K-D= 1.84x 10(-4) mol/L, Q(max) = 16.98 mumol/g for high affinity binding site and K-D= 1.33 x 10(-3) mol/L, Q(max)=46.84 mumol/g for lower affinity binding site, respectively. This microgel spheres can be useful affinity adsorbents in further applications.