Versatile method to obtain homogeneous imprinted polymer thin film at surface of superparamagnetic nanoparticles for tetracycline binding

We present a simple and versatile approach for the preparation of homogeneous imprinted polymer thin film based onto superparamagnetic nanoparticles to form the well-defined core-shell structure involving in surface modification and the subsequent in situ precipitation polymerization. The as-synthesized core-shell magnetic molecularly imprinted nanoadsorbents (MMINs) were systematically characterized, and binding equilibrium, kinetics, and selectivity property were evaluated by binding experiments. The binding amount of tetracycline (TC) increased with the increase in temperature and Langmuir isotherm described the data well, with the maximum binding capacity of 52.08 μmol g^-1 at 318 K. The kinetics rapidly achieved the equilibrium within 20 min, benefiting from imprinted polymer thin film (25 nm), and the data was well-described by the pseudo-second-order rate equation. MMINs showed the highest selective recognition for TC. In addition, enhanced superparamagnetic separability (56.16 emu g^-1) and reusability of MMINs provided the potential applications for environmental remediation, biological molecule purification, and drug delivery.