Protein recognition onto silica particles using chitosan as intermedium substrate

A novel molecular imprinting method was used to prepare twice-coated silica particles with specific recognition sites for hemoglobin. Chitosan was used as an intermedium to be coated on silica particles via phase inversion process, and the abundance of exposed amine groups (NH2) were active sites for introducing aldehyde groups. After hemoglobin was covalently immobilized by forming imine bonds with the aldehyde groups, acrylamide was then polymerized onto chitosan-coated silica particles to form the recognition sites. The obtained hemoglobin imprinted [molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)] beads were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The MIP particles exhibited selectively adsorption for the imprinted protein compared to the nonselectively adsorption for most of proteins of the nonimprinted (NIP) beads.