A method is developed for the synthesis of a molecularly imprinted adsorbent specific to zearalenone (ZEA) based on silicon(IV) oxide nanoparticles modified with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES). The study demonstrates that the selection of a template based on preliminary quantum-chemical calculations of the interaction energy between APTES and various template molecules can reduce environmental impact during the adsorbent synthesis. For imprinting APTES, the researchers used ZEA and its dummy analogs (warfarin, coumarin, 4-hydroxycoumarin, and quercetin) as templates in the presence of a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. The results showed that warfarin (adsorption capacity Q = 1.63 mg/g, imprinting factor IF = 14.9) and 4-hydroxycoumarin (Q = 1.1 mg/g, IF = 6.0) served as the optimal dummy templates, in good agreement with the results of quantum-chemical modeling. The imprinted adsorbent was successfully applied to the extraction of ZEA from wheat extracts (Q = 1.25 mg/g). Replacing warfarin (LD50 = 3 mg/kg) with the less toxic 4-hydroxycoumarin (LD50 = 2000 mg/kg) during the synthesis of a ZEA-specific imprinted adsorbent increases its environmental compatibility with only a minor decrease in adsorption efficiency.
Menyailo et al. (Sun,) studied this question.