Boronate affinity surface imprinted polymers supported on dendritic fibrous silica for enhanced selective separation of shikimic acid via covalent binding

In this work, a surface molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs)-based boronate affinity adsorbent was prepared on dendritic fibrous silica particle (DFSP) for rapid recognition and selective separation of shikimic acid for the first time. Double recognition of both imprinted cavity and boronate affinity endowing the MIPs material high adsorption capacity and superior selectivity, which could reach 43.708 mg g−1 at 308 K and pH 8, relatively higher than other reported materials. In addition, pH response adsorption towards SA was achieved in the work. Under the optimum condition, the experimental kinetics data is confirmed to the pseudo-second order model (R2 = 0.9957), and the adsorption process of shikimic acid is well fitted with the Langmuir model (R2 > 0.99). In contrast, the adsorption quantity of MIPs based adsorbent was 3.75 times higher than that of non-imprinted samples. Moreover, the as-obtained MIPs showed comparable reusability after five cycles of continuous adsorption–desorption, which maintained 86.38% of the initial adsorption quantity. The enhanced selectivity property and good regeneration performance makes the boronate affinity MIPs a promising and practical material for rapid recognition and specific capture of shikimic acid. Therefore, the strategy posed in this work sheds new light on the role of boronate affinity MIPs in the adsorption of shikimic acid.