Removal of patulin in apple juice based on novel magnetic molecularly imprinted adsorbent Fe3O4@SiO2@CS-GO@MIP

As a kind of mycotoxins , patulin has been a usual contamination in apple juice and causes a serious public health concern nowadays. Regarding this issue, a novel and effective adsorbent, Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 @CS-GO@MIP, is designed to remove the patulin from apple juice. Firstly, the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared by surface imprinting technique. Meanwhile, addition of Fe 3 O 4 makes the final prepared MIP adsorbent magnetic, which is beneficial for separating the adsorbent from the food matrix. Moreover, chitosan (CS) and SiO 2 improve the biocompatibility, stability and dispersibility of the MIP adsorbent effectively. As for the adsorption performance, batches of experiments were conducted on the proposed adsorbent. Experimental results showed that the adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm model, and the physical multi-molecular layer endothermic adsorption happened during the whole adsorption process. Adsorption capacity of the proposed adsorbent is 7.11 mg/g maximumly, and over 90% of the total patulin in apple juice being removed after 24 h. Besides, the proposed adsorbent has distinguishing characteristics, including large specific surface area with BET reaching 279.6 m 2 /g, high cell viability of 79.77% and no negative effects on final quality parameters. The desirable adsorption performance and characteristics make Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 @CS-GO@MIP a promising adsorbent for removing the patulin from apple juice in the future.