IntroductionOver the past few decades, molecular imprinting has been described as a technology for preparing "molecular doors" which can be matched to "template keys". It has been found to be a simple and effectiv...IntroductionOver the past few decades, molecular imprinting has been described as a technology for preparing "molecular doors" which can be matched to "template keys". It has been found to be a simple and effective approach to introduce specific recognition sites into synthetic polymers, namely, to create molecular imprinting polymers Remarkable features such as stability, ease of preparation and low cost, have made molecular imprinting polymers particularly attractive in chemical sensors, catalysis, drug delivery, and dedicated separations. Practical applications of molecular imprinting polymers require accessible sites, fast mass transfer, and quick binding. However, present techniques used to prepare molecular imprinting polymers most often result in materials exhibiting a high affinity and selectivity but a low capacity and poor site accessibility for the target molecules. It is also very difficult to remove the imprinted molecules located in these molecular imprinting polymers because the highly cross-linked structures do not allow the templates to move freely. To some extent, combining molecular imprinting technology with membrane separation and surface imprinting can overcome the shortcomings, such as mass transfer limitations and non-quantitative recovery of the template molecules seen for imprinted materials fabricated by conventional bulk methods. In that ease, it appears to us that molecular imprinting polymers with high surface area to volume ratios are particularly desirable for largescale applications. Eleetrospun nano and ultrafine fibrous membranes are the most suitable materials due to advantages such as: (1) large specific surfaces, providing relatively high imprinting sites per unit mass; (2) fine porous structures, resulting in the accessibility of imprinting sites and low diffusion resistance necessary for high efficiency; and (3) easy recoverability from practical operation or applicability for continuous usages. Therefore, in this work, we prepared a unique kind of imprinted material--molecularly imprinted fibrous membranes of poly ( acrylonitrile-co-acrylic acid) fabricated by means of an electrospinning process.展开更多
文摘IntroductionOver the past few decades, molecular imprinting has been described as a technology for preparing "molecular doors" which can be matched to "template keys". It has been found to be a simple and effective approach to introduce specific recognition sites into synthetic polymers, namely, to create molecular imprinting polymers Remarkable features such as stability, ease of preparation and low cost, have made molecular imprinting polymers particularly attractive in chemical sensors, catalysis, drug delivery, and dedicated separations. Practical applications of molecular imprinting polymers require accessible sites, fast mass transfer, and quick binding. However, present techniques used to prepare molecular imprinting polymers most often result in materials exhibiting a high affinity and selectivity but a low capacity and poor site accessibility for the target molecules. It is also very difficult to remove the imprinted molecules located in these molecular imprinting polymers because the highly cross-linked structures do not allow the templates to move freely. To some extent, combining molecular imprinting technology with membrane separation and surface imprinting can overcome the shortcomings, such as mass transfer limitations and non-quantitative recovery of the template molecules seen for imprinted materials fabricated by conventional bulk methods. In that ease, it appears to us that molecular imprinting polymers with high surface area to volume ratios are particularly desirable for largescale applications. Eleetrospun nano and ultrafine fibrous membranes are the most suitable materials due to advantages such as: (1) large specific surfaces, providing relatively high imprinting sites per unit mass; (2) fine porous structures, resulting in the accessibility of imprinting sites and low diffusion resistance necessary for high efficiency; and (3) easy recoverability from practical operation or applicability for continuous usages. Therefore, in this work, we prepared a unique kind of imprinted material--molecularly imprinted fibrous membranes of poly ( acrylonitrile-co-acrylic acid) fabricated by means of an electrospinning process.