Core-shell magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers based on Fe3O4@SiO2–C = C carrier for selective adsorption and rapid detection of ibuprofen in environment

This study developed Fe3O4@SiO2–C = C-based magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers for selective ibuprofen removal and detection. The optimized synthesis using an ibuprofen (IBP)/(3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES)/tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) molar ratio of 1:6:18 achieved a high adsorption capacity of 68.18 mg·g−1 and an imprinting factor of 2.17. The adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Freundlich isotherm model, indicating multilayer binding behavior. The material demonstrated excellent reusability with only 2.8% capacity loss after five cycles and good reproducibility with a relative standard deviation of 4.48%. In magnetic solid-phase extraction applications, the recovery rate reached 81.61% to 96.40% for real water samples with a detection limit of 0.09 μg·mL−1. The polymers showed selective recognition of ibuprofen over structural analogs due to synergistic π-π interactions and hydrogen bonding, thus offering an efficient strategy for remediating pharmaceutical pollutants in water.