Construction and Properties of New-Type Photo-Responsive Molecular Imprinting Materials

In recent years, stimuli-responsive polymers, a kind of functional material, have drawn increasing attention. In this paper, acrylamide azobenzene was introduced into the molecularly imprinted polymer by copolymerization with acrylic acid in the presence of template molecules methylene blue, crosslinker N,N '‑methylene bisacrylamide, and initiator azobisisobutyronitrile, which makes the imprinting material have the effect of light-operated and further expand the application range of imprinting materials. Detailed studies of the photo-regulated uptake and release process suggested that the binding affinity of imprinted recognition sites in imprinting materials could be changed under the alternating irradiation of ultraviolet and visible light. The adsorption isotherm experiments and adsorption kinetic experiments showed that the adsorption of methylene blue by the imprinted material conforms to the monolayer chemical adsorption and quasi-second-order kinetic model. Additionally, the relevant thermodynamic parameters were calculated. These thermodynamic parameters proved that the adsorption process was spontaneous, endothermic and entropy-increasing.