Synthesis of salicylic acid imprinted polymer microspheres via emulsion polymerization

The salicylic acid imprinted polymer microspheres (SMIP) were synthesized by emulsion polymerization using salicylic acid as template and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker. The interaction between the template and functional monomers was analyzed by UV subtractive spectroscopy. The effects of different kinds of functional monomers, molar ratio of template to functional monomer, dosage of crosslinker and elution solvent on the adsorption ability of SMIP were investigated by fluorescence spectrophotometry. The morphology and size distribution of SMIP were detected by SEM and Nanophox particle size analyzer. The results showed that the SMIP prepared by using acrylamide as functional monomer possessed higher adsorption ability than the blank polymer with the same chemical composition, and the imprinting factor reached 1.61. The particle size of SMIP was about 60 nm and the size distribution was narrow.