Molecularly Imprinted Polymer for the Molecular Recognition of Endocrine Disruptor Bisphenol-a

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a component of a coating material in can packaging and is known to leach out to the canned food. It is a known endocrine disruptor, carcinogen and mutagen hence detection and control of BPA should be a concern to protect the consumers. This study aims to develop a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for the molecular recognition of BPA. This paper presents the synthesis and characterization of BPAimprinted polymer as potential sorbent for bisphenol compounds. Rational design of MIP using computational technique defined the favorable binding energies of the interacting template-monomer systems. As such, the new BPA-imprinted polymer was synthesized by precipitation polymerization using mecthacrylic acid (MAA), bisphenol-A (BPA), trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM), and 2,2’azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) as functional monomer, template, crosslinker, and initiator, respectively. Successful synthesis was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy, fluorescence microscopy and elemental analysis. Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) showed that the MIP’s are relatively uniform microparticles with high degree of porosity. Binding studies using the Freundlich isotherm showed the heterogeneity of the MIP binding sites. Scatchard analysis showed the MIP as having two binding recognition types: the stronger affinity binding type exhibits dissociation constant (Kd) 20 times smaller than that of the weaker type with binding capacity of 68.597 mg BPA/g MIP. Binding of the BPA in MIP showed high imprinting factor suggesting an efficient sorbent material for BPA.