Recognition and Release of Nalidixic Acid Using Uniformly Sized -Imprinted Nanospheres: Methacrylic Acid to Methyl Methacrylate Different Mole Ratios

In the presence of imprinting molecules of Nalidixic acid, uniformly sized molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) in nanometer range were synthesized. The MIPs were successfully prepared by precipitation polymerization using methacrylic acid (MAA) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) as functional monomers at different mole ratios. The effect of combination of MAA-to-MMA on the morphology, binding, recognition and release behaviors of the final particles were studied. The produced polymers were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and their morphology was precisely examined by scanning electron microscopy. We obtained very uniform imprinted nanospheres with diameter of 120- 180 nm. Among the MIP nanospheres the MIPs using combination of MAA and MMA showed nanospheres with lowest mean diameter (120 nm) and the highest selectivity factor (9.7). The adsorption properties of Nalidixic acid in acetonitrile for imprinted nanospheres were evaluated by equilibrium rebinding experiments. Results from binding experiments proved that MIPs exhibit specific affinity to Nalidixic acid in contrast to control polymers and this performance was affected by pH of loading solution and. Moreover, release experiments showed the controlled release of Nalidixic acid in longtime period. The loaded Nalidixic acid was released from the imprinted nanospheres within the 140 h.