Synthesis and Evaluation of Molecularly Imprinted Polymeric Microspheres for Chloramphenicol by Aqueous Suspension Polymerization as a High Performance Liquid Chromatography Stationary Phase

Molecularly imprinted microsphere for chloramphenicol (CAP) with high adsorption capacity and excellent selectivity is prepared by aqueous suspension polymerization, in which chloramphenicol is used as template molecule and ethyl acetate as porogen. The CAP-imprinted microspheres are used as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) stationary phase and packed into stainless steel column (150 mm Χ 4.6 mm i. d.) for selective separation of chloramphenicol. HPLC analysis suggests that chloramphenicol can be distinguished from not only its structural analogs but also other broad-spectrum antibiotic such as erythromycin and tetracycline. In addition, the binding experiments of CAP-imprinted microspheres are carried out in ethanol/water (1:4, V:V), the results indicate that the maximum apparent static binding capacity of molecularly imprinted microspheres is up to 66.64 mg g-1 according to scatchard model