Surface molecularly imprinted polymers for solid-phase extraction of （-）-epigallocatechin gallate from toothpaste

Surface molecularly imprinted polymers （SMIPs） have been synthesized to selectively determine （-）-epigallocatechin gallate in aqueous media. SMIPs were prepared using a surface grafting copolymerization method on a functionalized silica gel modified with β-cyclodextrin and vinyl groups. The morphology and composition of the SMIPs were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. In addition, the molecular binding capacity, recognition properties and selectivity of the SMIPs were evaluated. The imprinted polymers were found to have a highly specific recognition and binding capacity for aqueous media which is （-）-epigallocatechin gallate in the result of the hydrophobic properties of the β-cyclodextrin and the hydrogen-bonding interactions of methacrylic acid. The SMIPs were successfully employed as solid-phase extraction adsor- bents prior to the HPLC determination of （-）-epigallocatechin gallate in toothpaste. The HPLC analysis had a linear dynamic range of 0.5-50.0 μg·mL^-1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.9998 and the recoveries ranged from 89.4% to 97.0% with relative standard deviations less than 4.8%. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 0.17 and 0.33 μg·mL^-1, respectively. The method provides a promising approach for the preparation of selective materials for the purification and determination of complex samples.

Surface-imprinted polymers in microfluidic devices

Molecularly imprinted polymers are generated by curing a cross-linked polymer in the presence of a template. During the curing process, noncovalent bonds form between the polymer and the template. The interaction sites for the noncovalent bonds become "frozen" in the cross-linking polymer and maintain their shape even after the template is removed. The resulting cavities reproduce the size and shape of the template and can selectively reincorporate the template when a mixture containing it flows over the imprinted surface. In the last few decades the field of molecular imprinting has evolved from being able to selectively capture only small molecules to dealing with all kinds of samples. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been generated for analytes as diverse as metal ions, drug molecules, environmental pollutants, proteins and viruses to entire cells. We review here the relatively new field of surface imprinting, which creates imprints of large, biologically relevant templates. The traditional bulk imprinting, where a template is simply added to a prepolymer before curing, cannot be applied if the analyte is too large to diffuse from the cured polymer. Special methods must be used to generate binding sites only on a surface. Those techniques have solved crucial problems in separation science as well as chemical and biochemical sensing. The implementation of imprinted polymers into microfluidic chips has greatly improved the applicability of microfluidics. We present the latest advances and different approaches of surface imprinting and their applications for microfluidic devices.