Synthesis of Atenolol-Imprinted Polymers with Methyl Methacrylate as Functional Monomer in Propanol Using Bulk and Precipitation Polymerization Method

Atenolol is one of the beta-1 blocker drugs that is misused by athletes to increase their performance during competition. Therefore, it is important to analyze atenolol levels in blood selectively. The preparation method that can be used in separating atenolol in sample is molecular imprinting solid-phase extraction (MI-SPE) because it has good selectivity and sensitivity. This study aims to examine the characteristics and analytical performance of imprinted polymers synthesized from functional monomer methyl methacrylate. The stages of this study include the determination of association constants, synthesis of sorbent MI-SPE atenolol using the bulk polymerization method, and precipitation with atenolol as the template, methyl methacrylate as the functional monomer, and propanol as the porogen. The template was extracted from a polymer, and then, the adsorption ability, capacity, and selectivity of MI-SPE and finally the application of the best MI-SPE to spiked serum samples were determined. MI-SPE was also characterized by using Fourier-transform instrument infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The result of characterization with FTIR and SEM showed that MIP made by the precipitation polymerization method was completely polymerized, more porous, and produced smaller particle size with an average value of 0.274 μm. It had better analytic performances than MIP made by bulk polymerization, with affinity value 0.3607 mg/g and homogeneity value 1.3246, and good selectivity toward atenolol with imprinting factor value 22.519. Application of MI-SPE to spiked serum samples has an excellent recovery percentage of 95.46% over 0% for the nonimprinting one. Based on the result of study, MIP made by precipitation polymerization could be used to extract atenolol on serum samples toward drug analysis.