Selective separation of quercetin from catechin (+)/quercetin mixture using nanoporous molecularly imprinted polymers

The three-dimensional imprinted polymeric network was synthesized via a bulk polymerization reaction in the presence of a flavonoid as a template. In this reaction, methacrylic acid (MAA) and acrylic acid (AA), tetrahydrofuran and trimethylolpropanetrimethacrylate, were used as functional monomers, porogen, and cross-linker, respectively. In this study, two kinds of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with different ratios of 1:8:40 and 1:20:80 (template: functional monomer: cross-linker) were synthesized and compared together. The related binding capacities were calculated as equal to 392.08 mg/g and 609.00 mg/g, respectively, by UV-spectrometer. The synthesized polymers have been evaluated via field emission scan electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller techniques. High selectivity and the proper specific surface area as equal to 167.00 m²/g in MIPs-based methacrylic acid (MIPs-MAA) and 434 m²/g in MIPs-based acrylic acid (MIPs-AA) comparatively to non-imprinted molecular polymers are the privileged characteristics in this research. The MIPs provided are a good candidate for the separation of flavonoids with the solid phase extraction method.