A novel polychloromethylstyrene coated superparamagnetic surface molecularly imprinted core–shell nanoparticle for bisphenol A

The superparamagnetic surface molecularly imprinted Fe3O4@MIP nanoparticles for bisphenol A (BPA) were prepared via surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (si-ATRP). The Fe3O4 core was compactly encapsulated with a polychloromethylstyrene (PCMS) layer viamini-emulsion polymerization. Fe3O4@MIP exhibited superparamagnetic property with saturation magnetization of 25.2 emu g−1. The BPA imprinted Fe3O4@MIP revealed specific selectivity and high affinity to the template BPA over structural analogues. Moreover, the surface-imprinted MIP nanoparticles showed good site accessibility for BPA. The compactly PCMS-coated Fe3O4@MIP maintained its response ability to a magnetic field at acidic and alkaline conditions. Fe3O4@MIP was used to determine BPA in tap water samples with good accuracy and precision.