Molecularly Imprinted Mesoporous Organosilica

We have prepared molecularly imprinted mesoporous organosilica (MIMO) using a semicovalent imprinting technique. A thermally reversible covalent bond was used to link a bisphenol A (BPA) Imprint molecule to a functional alkoxysilane monomer at two points to generate a covalently bound imprint precursor. This precursor was incorporated into a cross linked periodic mesoporous silica matrix via a typical acid-catalyzed triblock copolymer-templated, sol-gel synthesis. Evidence of imprint sites buried in the pore walls was found, through careful characterization of the imprinted material and its comparison to similarly prepared non imprinted mesoporous organosilica (NIMO) and pure periodic mesoporous silica (PMS). After thermal,. treatment the imprinted material (MIMO-ir) removed more than 90% of appropriately sized _. bisphenol species from water, yet showed, significantly lower binding for both smaller and larger molecules containing phenol moieties Identically treated NIMO-ir showed much poorer retention behavior than MIMO-ir for the same bisphenol species and behaved only slightly better than PMS-ir.