Surface Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Based on ZIF-8 for selective Adsorption of Naringenin

Abstract Naringenin, an herbal ingredient possesses a diversity of pharmacological action and bioactive functions. In this study, surface molecularly imprinted polymers named as Zeolite imidazolate framework-8 were successfully synthesized and applied in the selective adsorption of naringenin. A series of adsorption experiments evaluated the adsorption properties of polymers. The results showed that the molecularly imprinted polymers had a higher adsorption capacity than non-imprinted polymers. In addition, they have good selectivity for Naringenin compared with other flavonoid compounds, and its imprinting factor for naringenin is as high as 3 in single solutions. The Scatchard plots showed two distinct linear portions, indicating that two kinds of binding sites exist in the molecularly imprinted polymers. After eight cycles, the adsorption capacity of polymers did not decrease significantly in the initial affinity. These results demonstrated that prepared molecularly imprinted polymers could be promising functional materials for the selective adsorption of naringenin.