Preparation of ordered macroporous cinchonine molecularly imprinted polymers and comparative study of their structure and binding properties with traditional bulk molecularly imprinted polymers

Three-dimensionally ordered macroporous molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIPs) were prepared by a combination of the colloidal crystal template method and the molecular imprinting technique. Traditional bulk molecularly imprinted polymers (BMIPs) were simultaneously synthesized with the same recipe as the MMIPs by using methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker and chloroform as porogen. SEM and Brunauer − Emmett − Teller measurements show that MMIPs have a more regular macroporous structure, a narrower macropore distribution and a greater surface area and porosity compared with BMIPs. The isothermal and kinetic data of both polymers can be fitted with the Freundlich model and a pseudo-second-order equation, respectively. Their specificities to the template molecules are also similar. However, the binding capability, adsorption rate coefficient and internal effective diffusion coefficient of the MMIPs are higher than for the BMIPs when the particle size is above 54 µm. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry