Synthesis and characterization of molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres functionalized with POSS

[Display omitted] •Uniform porous PTX-MIP microparticles were prepared by RAFTPP.•The amounts of M−POSS significantly improved the pore structure of PTX-MIP.•The PTX-MIP exhibited good adsorption selectivity towards Paclitaxel.•The obtained PTX-MIP showed fast adsorption kinetics and reusability. A type of novel porous molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) microspheres containing methacryl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (M−POSS) were synthesized through reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization precipitation polymerization (RAFTPP). The obtained porous microspheres had narrow particle size distribution and regular spherical shape. The addition of M−POSS could not only largely enhance the structural stability but also increase the pore structure of MIPs. The composition and shape characteristic of the MIPs were characterized by FT-IR, CA, SEM, TGA, and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm. The binding properties and selectivity of the MIP and non-imprinted polymer (NIP) were demonstrated by adsorption capacity obtained based on HPLC absorption measurements. The results showed that the adsorption capacity of the paclitaxel imprinted polymer containing 85 mg M−POSS (PTX-MIP2) for PTX reached 17.24 mg g−1 after 200 min. A comparative study demonstrated that PTX-MIP2 possessed excellent selectivity towards PTX, which presented an imprinting factor of 3.17. Meanwhile, PTX-MIP2 could be reused five cycles with slight loss in adsorption capacity.