Impact of functional cross-linker on recognition properties of a Bisphenol-A imprinted polymer film for coating a Quartz Crystal Microbalance

Robust systems could be generated based on Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) combined with Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for on-site, in-time chemical sensing. A review of the literature demonstrates that, despite the large amount of available data to date on MIPs formulation, the main applications continue to be in the separation field, whereas the development of sensors and QCM sensors, in particular, is significantly slower. Bisphenol-A (BPA) imprinted polymers for future sensor applications were synthesized by non covalent precipitation polymerization. In order to optimize the binding properties, three different cross-linkers were used in the formulations: ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA), trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate and (TRIM) and divinylbenzene (DVB). Batch rebinding tests in aqueous media were carried out to evaluate the binding parameters fitting the adsorption isotherms by Langmuir, bi-Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich models. Significant differences in the heterogeneity and capacity of the polymers were observed. TRIM crosslinked BPA imprinted polymer showed the best results.