Molecularly imprinted CaCO3/polydopamine hybrid composite for selective protein recognition

CITTA, MARIA DE LOS MILAGROS; FOOKES, FEDERICO; BUSATTO, CARLOS; ESTENOZ, DIANA ALEJANDRA; CASIS, NATALIA

Iranian Polymer Journal (English Edition)

Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH

Año: 2023 vol. 32 p. 1111 - 1122

Molecular imprinting has shown significant advances in the recognition and separation of small molecules. This technol-ogy has been proposed for different applications, including solid-phase extraction, stationary phases in HPLC, chemical sensing, drug-delivery systems, passive sampling, among others. However, imprinting of biological macromolecules with increased structural complexity is still challenging. In this work, CaCO3 microparticles were synthesized using a precipita-tion method and employed as a novel support for the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) towards a model protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA), through the polymerization of dopamine. Microparticles exhibited a rhombohedral morphology and a narrow size distribution (2.5 ± 0.4 µm). Reaction times showed to increase the polydopamine coating thickness, the MIP adsorption capacities, and the impression efficiency, reaching values of 5.1 nm, 50.2 ± 5.9 mg BSA/g sample, and 8.1 after 24 h, respectively. In addition, lower adsorption capacities were observed against proteins with similar physicochemical properties, such as ovalbumin (25.07 ± 2.5 mg/g) and casein (19.62 ± 7.01 mg/g). The adsorption kinetic assay indicated that MIPs present the highest BSA adsorption capacity after 1 h. In this regard, a methodology that offers a simple approach for the synthesis of materials designed for the specific recognition and separation of biological molecules is presented. The microparticles developed represent a potential use for protein separation in applications such as stationary phase in liquid chromatography.