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Updated: Apr 17, 2026
Fabrication of Polymer Microspheres for Optical Resonator and Laser Applications
Published on: June 2, 2017
A facile and universal method to prepare hydrophilic molecularly imprinted microspheres by encapsulating a polymer in
Shun Yang1, Najun Li, Qingjian Xing
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123 (China), Fax: (+86) 512-6588-0367.
Abstract:
Hydrophilic molecularly imprinted microspheres (MIP@SiO2) for the adsorption of water-soluble molecules in real aqueous samples were successfully synthesized. In this strategy, a molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) was encapsulated in the hollow core of hollow mesoporous silica (HMS) particles via a 'ship-in-a-bottle' process. As the HMS shell contains plenty of Si-OH groups, the as-prepared microspheres proved to be hydrophilic and could be well dispersed in water. On the other hand, the MIP encapsulated in the HMS could specifically recognize small molecules with good binding efficiency through the mesoporous silica shell. Binding experiments in real aqueous solutions showed that the MIP@SiO2 composites have excellent recognition ability for specific molecules. Thus, MIP@SiO2 are highly promising alternatives to biological receptors with great potential for many analytical applications, such as environmental, food, and clinical analyses and other areas.
