Adsorption and selectivity studies of direct and magnetite-cored molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs and magMIPs) towards chosen chalcones investigated with various analytical methods

The following article presents a method for obtaining molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) dedicated to trans-chalcone (TC) and 2′,4′-dihydroxy-3-methoxychalcone (DHMC). The synthetic protocol optimized with a choice of the most suitable functional monomer led to the synthesis of MIPs and their non-imprinted equivalents (NIP) performed via direct polymerization or on the surface of magnetite nanoparticles. The characterized materials were investigated for adsorption isotherms of TC and DHMC, which led to satisfactory values of maximal adsorption capacity, reaching 131.58 and 474.71 mg g(−1), respectively. Moreover, all the polymers were studied for the adsorption kinetics and the selectivity towards four structurally different chalcones, which proved the proper selectiveness towards the template molecules. Also, the kinetic profiles of chalcones' adsorption on the synthesized MIPs showed a quasi-plateau reached already after 2 hours, indicating high sorption effectiveness. The studies involved the use of various analytical techniques, which afforded a comprehensive and reliable description of the materials' adsorption efficacy. It was found that the materials successfully bind the MIP-complementary analytes and also structurally similar chalcones, with slightly lower intensity.