Bioinspired synthesis of SiO₂/pDA-based nanocomposite-imprinted membranes with sol-gel imprinted layers for selective adsorption and separation applications

Inspired by the biomimetic membrane modification technique of polydopamine (pDA), SiO₂/pDA-based nanocomposite-imprinted membranes (SpIMs) with high selectivity and stability have been successfully synthesized. Herein, tetracycline (TC) was used as a template molecule and instead of constructing imprinted polymers onto pristine membrane surfaces, a versatile pDA-modified strategy was initially conducted on the membrane surfaces followed by the reformative sol-gel imprinting technique. Moreover, largely enhanced TC-rebinding capacity (45.95 mg g^-1), permselectivity of TC (separation factors more than 11.5) and structural stability (maintained 93% of the maximum adsorption capacity after 11 cycling operations) could be easily achieved because of the construction of membrane-based multilevel nanocomposite surfaces. These results strongly illustrated that the incorporation of pDA-based sol-gel imprinted polymers into molecularly imprinted membranes could result in both high rebinding capacity and excellent permselectivity. All synthesis processes were carried out at low temperatures and ordinary pressures, which is energy-efficient and environmentally friendly for large-scale applications.