Effects of Different Synthesis Conditions on the Morphology of Molecularly Imprinted Nanoparticles

Potential applications of the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) such as chemistry,medicine, and biotechnology demand morphology. In different application purposes, MIPs with different size ranges and morphology are highly desirable. Nowadays, research on imprinted polymers is focused on the control and modification of the different parameters during the synthesis. In this work, the effect of different synthesis conditions on themorphology and particle size of imprinted micro- and nanoparticles based on non-covalent interactions was investigated. Molecularly imprinted particles were prepared using precipitation polymerization in various conditions such as: the amounts of functional monomer (methacrylic acid, MAA), cross-linker agents (trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate, TRIM, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, EGDMA), reaction solvent (acetonitrile, chloroform), initiator (azobisisobutyronitrile, AIBN), temperature and time of polymerization. We investigated polymerization conditions to obtain imprinted spherical polymer particles with controllable size in the micro- to nanometer range (243 nm to 3.4 μm). Morphological properties of polymer particles were studied by two versatile analytical techniques, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). The experimental results obtained provide new insights into morphology and particle size studies

کلیدواژه ها:

Synthesis conditions ، Precipitation polymerization ، Morphology ، Nanoparticle ، Molecular imprinting