Novel molecularly imprinted polymers with carbon nanotube as matrix for selective solid-phase extraction of emodin from kiwi fruit root

In this paper, we present a novel surface imprinting technique for the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MIPs/MWNTs) for extraction of emodin from kiwi fruit root. The MIPs/MWNTs were characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The properties involving adsorption dynamics, static adsorption, and selective recognition capacity were evaluated. The MIPs/MWNTs exhibited good site accessibility in which it only took 60 min to achieve adsorption equilibrium and highly selective recognition for the template emodin. Furthermore, the performance of the MIPs/MWNTs as solid phase extraction (SPE) material was investigated in detail. The proposed MIPs/MWNTs-SPE procedure for emodin exhibited satisfactory recoveries ranging from 89.2% to 93.8% for real samples. It was used for the purification and enrichment of emodin from kiwi fruit root successfully.