Preparation and spectral characterization of apigenin molecularly imprinted polymer

An apigenin molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared by bulk polymerization using apigenin as template, acrylamide (AA) as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a crosslinking agent, acetonitrile and N, N-dimethylformamide as porogenic solvents, and 2, 2′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator.  The interaction between template and functional monomer was proved by ultraviolet visible (UV) spectrophotometry and based on the results, appropriate reaction solvent was selected and the synthesizing  process was estimated.  The molecularly imprinted polymer structure was analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrophotometry.  The molecularly imprinted polymer was investigated in equilibrium binding    experiment to evaluate its adsorption property, the results showed that the adsorption of apigenin on molecularly imprinted polymer is higher than that on blank polymer in the studied concentration range (0.1 − 2.5 mmol·L⁻¹).  Scathcard analysis showed that two classes of binding sites existed in the apigenin imprinted polymers, with their K_D and Q_max estimated to be 2.52×10⁻⁴, 0.54×10⁻³ mmol·L⁻¹ and 2.65, 18.89 µmol·g⁻¹, respectively.  Molecularly imprinted polymer showed higher affinity than blank polymer.