Application of Molecularly Imprinted Film for Extraction of Herbicide Mecoprop from Aqueous Sample

Molecular imprinting is a novel technique for preparing specific absorbents with selective sites for binding to the target molecule. Molecularly imprinted polymers, because of their high selectivity and stability, low cost and easy methods of preparation, have been widely employed in separation procedures. In this study, we evaluated the synthesized electrospun imprinted membrane (MIM) as a specific sorbent for herbicide mecoprop (MCPP). The films were prepared using methacrylic acid (MAA) as functional monomer and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a main part of polymeric solution and in the presence of dichloromethane (DCM) and Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as the solvents. The template was extracted through washing, results in the free specific memory sites within the films. Then, the synthesized electrospun imprinted membrane (MIM) was evaluated as a specific sorbent for herbicide mecoprop (MCPP). The results showed that the solution with 20% w/v of PET was the optimal solution for electrospinning process and at all different MCPP/MAA molar ratios (1:2, 1:4. 1:6 and 1:8), MIM had higher removal ability for template molecule (p<0.05) compared to NIM. The template/monomer ratio of 1:4 had the best binding amount. We also investigated the capability of MIM to be used as sorbent for pesticide 2,4-D, that is, the analogue of the main template molecule and diazinon, that is, the pesticide with different structure to the template. In addition, we used synthesized MIM and NIM films to extract MCPP analyte from environmental aqueous samples (bottled water and groundwater) and the results indicated successful performance of MIM compared to NIN.