Synergistic effect of polyhedral oligomeric semisiloxane and boronate affinity molecularly imprinted polymer in a solid-phase extraction system for selective enrichment of ovalbumin

Abstract The study focuses on synthesizing novel polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes functionalized boronate affinity molecularly imprinted polymer (MCM-48@P-B-MIPs) material. The MCM-48@P-B-MIPs were prepared using MCM-48 as the matrix, POSS as the auxiliary monomer, 4-vinylphenylboric acid (VPBA) as the boronate affinity functional monomer, ovalbumin (OVA) as the template molecule, and dopamine (DA) as the self-polymerizing reagent. The material was used as a solid-phase extraction (SPE) adsorbent to enrich OVA selectively. The MCM-48@P-B-MIPs exhibit excellent adsorbent properties due to rich boric acid groups and a large specific surface area. The specific imprinting sites of molecularly imprinted polymers can selectively distinguish the target protein OVA from other proteins, such as horseradish peroxidase (HRP), bovine hemoglobin (BHb), and lysozyme (Lyz). The MCM-48@P-B-MIPs show effective adsorption to selectively recognize OVA with a high adsorption capacity of 222.1 mg g−1, short adsorption time of 27 min, and a suitable imprinted factor (IF) of 2.1. The adsorbent follows the pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics and Langmuir isotherm model. Overall, the method was successfully applied to enrich the OVA selectively in egg white samples.