Preparation and characterization of mesoporous silica SBA-15-supported molecularly caffeine-imprinted polymers by surface molecularly imprinting technique

Objective: The adsorption behavior of the caffeine molecularly imprinted polymer for caffeine was investigated.Moreover,the imprinted polymer was applied for selective extraction of caffeine from tea.Methods: A novel molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared with caffeine as template and modified ordered mesoporous silica SBA-15 as carrier based on surface molecularly imprinting technique.The prepared polymer was characterized by the scanning electron microscopy.The adsorption behavior of the adsorbent for caffeine was investigated using batch experiments.In addition,these imprinted polymers were applied for selective extraction of caffeine from tea.Results: The optimum acidity was around pH 7.0 and the imprinted polymer exhibited fast kinetics and high adsorption capacity for caffeine.Caffeine adsorption process onto MIPs followed the Freundlich adsorption isotherm and the Pseudo-second-order kinetic model.Furthermore,these imprinted polymers could extract caffeine from tea effectively.Conclusion: MIT looks forward to be used as the materials for extraction of caffeine from tea.