Molecularly imprinted microspheres and nanoparticles prepared using precipitation polymerisation method for selective extraction of gallic acid from Emblica officinalis

This paper reports the preparation of gallic acid (GA) molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) by the precipitation polymerisation and highlights the effect of porogen on particle size and specific molecular recognition properties. MIP, M-100 prepared in the porogen acetonitrile and MIP, M-75 prepared in a mixture of acetonitrile-toluene (75:25 v/v), resulted in the formation of microspheres with approximately 4 μm particle size and surface area of 96.73 m2 g−1 and nanoparticles (0.8-1000 nm) and a surface area of 345.9 m2 g−1, respectively. The Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm study revealed that M-75 has comparatively higher number of binding sites which are homogenous and has higher affinity for GA. The MIPs selectively recognised GA in presence of its structural analogues. Pure GA with percent recovery of 75 (±1.6) and 83.4 (±2.2) was obtained from the aqueous extract of Emblica officinalis by M-100 and M-75, respectively and hot water at 60 °C served as the eluting solvent.