Teamed Boronate Affinity-Functionalized Zn-MOF/PAN-Derived Molecularly Imprinted Hollow Carbon Electrospinning Nanofibers for Selective Adsorption of Shikimic Acid

Electrospun micro-/nanofibers with tailor-made specific binding sites are extremely popular due to their tremendous potential in separation applications. In this work, teamed boronate affinity (TBA)-functionalized molecularly imprinted hollow carbon electrospun nanofibers (MI-HCESNFs) derived from ZIF-8/PAN fibers with selective binding sites toward shikimic acid (SA) are presented. Each ingredient used in this strategy plays its own part: HCESNFs with excellent structural characteristics as the highly porous electrospun substrate, KH560 as the grafting material for the follow-up polyethyleneimine (PEI) modification, PEI as the dendritic platform to approach more boronic acid owing to its long chain with abundant amino groups, and TBA molecular group as the functional monomer to specifically bind with SA under the neutral condition. Benefiting from the porous structure, the high density of boronic acid, and the highly accessible imprinted sites on the surface, MI-HCESNFs show strong affinity and selectivity to the SA molecules. The adsorption capacity of MI-HCESNFs can reach 127.8 mg g–1, which is 3.1 times larger than that of the non-imprinted material. Besides, MI-HCESNFs are stable when treated with continuous ultrasonication and can be recycled eight times with a slight loss of 8.615% on the adsorption quantity. This work presents a new strategy to prepare boronate affinity adsorbents based on the electrospinning technique for the capture of SA and also proposes a path for the integration of molecularly imprinted polymers and electrospinning.