Specific enrichment of caffeic acid from Taraxacum mon-golicum Hand.-Mazz. by pH and magnetic dual-responsive molecularly imprinted polymers.

Specific recognition of caffeic acid (CA) from Taraxacum mon-golicum Hand.-Mazz. was successfully performed using a new pH responsive magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (pH-MMIPs) by simple surface molecular imprinting polymerization. The pH-MMIPs were prepared on the surface of the FeO@SiO@MPS particles using CA as a template, 2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate (DMA) as the pH responsive functional monomer, 4-vinylpyridine (4-VP) as an assisting functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate (EGDMA) as cross-linker, 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator and methanol-HO (1:1, v/v) as the porogen. The resultant polymers were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The adsorption experiments revealed that the pH-MMIPs performed high adsorption ability (11.5 mg g) by changing solution pH. Successful selective adsorption of CA was achieved with distribution coefficient of 0.12 and 0.21 towards ferulic acid and chlorogenic acid. Furthermore, pH-MMIPs were employed as adsorbents for extraction and enrichment of CA from Taraxacum mon-golicum Hand.-Mazz. extract. The recoveries of CA in the Taraxacum mon-golicum Hand.-Mazz. ranged from 90.47% to 98.97%. The results proved that the polymers have the potential to provide a selective recognition of CA in complex samples by simple pH regulation.