Effect of porogenic solvent on the morphology, recognition and release properties of carbamazepine‐molecularly imprinted polymer nanospheres

Abstract This study focus on the effect of the porogenic solvent on the morphology, recognition, and drug release of carbamazepine‐molecularly imprinted polymer nanospheres prepared by precipitation polymerization. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller (BET) analysis showed that molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) prepared by acetonitrile exhibited a regular spherical shape at the nanoscale with a high degree of monodispersity, specific surface area of 242 m 2 g −1 , and pore volume of 1 mL g −1 , while those using chloroform and toluene produced irregular polymer particles with low specific surface area and pore volume. MIP prepared by acetonitrile/chloroform (1 : 1, v/v) showed mediator texture properties compared to MIPs obtained by acetonitrile or chloroform. Results from saturation and displacement assays indicated that the imprinted nanospheres with binding capacity of 2.85 (mg CBZ/g polymer) had high specific affinity to CBZ in contrast to nonimprinted nanospheres (1.63 mg CBZ/g polymer). The imprinted nanospheres with 2.4 selectivity factor had good recognition to CBZ than analog template of oxcarbazepine. Moreover, release studies showed that 20% of loaded CBZ was released from the imprinted nanospheres within the initial 6 h, while another 80% of CBZ was released in the following 9 days. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011