PEGylated Thermo-Sensitive Bionic Magnetic Core-Shell Structure Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Based on Halloysite Nanotubes for Specific Adsorption and Separation of Bovine Serum Albumin

Novel PEGylated thermo-sensitive bionic magnetic core-shell structure molecularly imprinted polymers (PMMIPs) for the specific adsorption and separation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were obtained via a surface-imprinting technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and specific surface area (BET), were adopted to demonstrate that novel PMMIPs were successfully synthesized. Subsequently, the prepared PMMIPs were used as the extractor for BSA and were combined with magnetic solid-phase extraction. The concentrations of BSA were detected by UV-vis spectrophotometry at 278 nm. The maximum adsorption capacity of the PMMIPs was 258 mg g−1, which is much higher than that of non-imprinted polymer (PMNIPs). PMMIPs showed favorable selectivity for BSA against reference proteins, i.e., bovine hemoglobin, ovalbumin and lysozyme. PMMIPs were further used to recognize BSA in protein mixtures, milk, urine and sewage, these results revealed that approximately 96% of the ideal-state adsorption capacity of PMMIPs for BSA was achieved under complicated conditions. Regeneration and reusability studies demonstrated that adsorption capacity loss of the PMMIPs was not obvious after recycling for four times. Facile synthesis, excellent adsorption property and efficient selectivity for BSA trapping are features that highlight PMMIPs as an attractive candidate for biomacromolecular purification.