Thermosensitive molecularly imprinted polymers on porous carriers: Preparation, characterization and properties as novel adsorbents for bisphenol A

• Two functional monomers were employed for the thermosensitive porous MIPs (T-MIPs).
• The T-MIPs demonstrated high adsorption, fast kinetics, excellent selectivity and reusability.
• The T-MIPs were thermo-dependent, presenting the highest imprinting performances at 20 °C.
• The applicability was favorable in seawater and food sample analysis.

Thermosensitive molecularly imprinted polymers (T-MIPs) on porous carriers were prepared via the synergy of dual functional monomers of 4-vinylpyridine (VP) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), for selective recognition and controlled adsorption and release of bisphenol A (BPA) by the temperature regulation. The porous polymer supporter was synthesized by multistep swelling of polystyrene and then both the NIPAM with temperature responsiveness and the basic monomers of VP were grafted on them in a simple way. The resultant T-MIPs showed high binding capacity, fast kinetics, and the adsorption processes were found to follow Langmuir–Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. The adsorption capacity increased slightly along with the rise of temperature (such as 20 °C) under lower critical solution temperature (LCST, 33 °C) and decreased fast above LCST (such as 50 °C). Subsequently, the T-MIPs were employed as novel adsorbents for selective solid-phase extraction (SPE) of BPA from seawater and yogurt samples. Satisfying recoveries in the range of 94.83–98.47% were obtained with the precision of 3.21% at ambient temperature (20 °C). Through 6 adsorption–desorption cycles, the reusable T-MIPs exhibited a good recoverability with the relative standard error within 9.8%. The smart T-MIPs provided great potentials for selective identification, adsorption/release and removal of BPA by simple stimuli responsive regulation.

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