Novel approach over template molecule elimination in molecularly imprinted polymers by using heat activated persulfate

•The first study of the complete degradation of a template molecule in a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) by heat activated pesulfate (HAP).•The kinetic study of CoQ0 degradation by HAP for the first time.•The higher selectivity interaction of CoQ10 and MIP treated by HAP over other related substance.•The development of a green procedure for template removal in a MIP. This study proposes a new alternative for template removal from molecularly imprinted polymers by heat activated persulfate. It is known that trace amounts of template molecule remains in the polymer network after extraction by current methodologies leading to bleeding and incomplete removal of template which could compromise final determination of target analytes especially in trace analysis. A previously developed molecularly imprinted polymer specially designed for Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) extraction was employed as a model to test this template elimination approach. This polymer is based on methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethylacrylate as monomers and Coenzyme Q0 as template. This coenzyme has the same quinone group as the CoQ10. Selectivity was analyzed comparing the recovery of CoQ10 and ubichromenol, a CoQ10 related substance. Chemical degradation using heat-activated persulfate allows the elimination of the template molecule with a high level of efficiency, being a simple and ecological methodology, yielding a polymer that exhibits comparable selectivity and imprinting effect with respect to traditional extraction methods.