Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization was successfully used to prepare 4-vinylphenylboronic acid functionalized poly(glycidylmethacrylate-co-ethylenedimethacrylate) beads for the selective enrichment of glycoprotein from complex biological samples in this study. The modified bead surfaces were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The sorption behaviors, including adsorption isotherms, incubation time, and pH effect, were investigated. The results demonstrated that the boronated beads have a high affinity for glycoprotein, which is due to the well-defined boronic acid brushes on the beads surfaces. Furthermore, the polyvinylphenylboronic acid grafted poly(glycidylmethacrylate-co-ethylenedimethacrylate) beads were used to efficiently enrich and purify glycoprotein from real egg white samples and α-fetoprotein from human serum samples. The mass spectrometry results demonstrated that the polyvinylphenylboronic acid grafted poly(glycidylmethacrylate-co-ethylenedimethacrylate) beads are a suitable material for the enrichment of glycosylated protein from complex biological samples.

17β-Estradiol (E2) surface molecularly imprinted polymers have been prepared using functionalized monodispersed poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) beads as a support. The resulting polymers were found to be uniform in size (5 μm), and the surfaces of the microspheres possessed large pore-like structures. A chromatographic experiment demonstrated that the resulting microspheres exhibited high levels of recognition and selectivity toward the target molecule. The particles were employed as a novel sorbent in a molecularly imprinted SPE protocol. A method was then developed involving the combination of the pretreatment with HPLC to determine the levels of estrogen secreted from Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 cells. The obtained results revealed that the extraction recoveries of E2 from real samples were in the range of 73.0–97.5% with RSDs of < 7.5% (n = 3). Calibration curves were established with R values > 0.9996 for concentrations in the range of 0.50–100.00 ng/mL. The LOD of this new method was 0.14 ng/mL. Compared with traditional C₁₈ SPE agents, the particles showed high selectivity and extraction efficiency for E2 in the pretreatment process. The particles could therefore be used to determine trace estrogen in biological samples with a UV detector only.

Molecularly imprinted polymer beads of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were prepared via inverse phase suspension polymerization, using BSA as the template molecule, a combination of acrylamide and methacrylic acid (MAA) as double functional monomers, and N, N′-methylene bisacrylamide as the crosslinker. The effect of different monomer ratios and degrees of crosslinking were investigated. When both selectivity and physical properties of the resultant polymer beads were taken into account, the ratio of MAA in the total monomers was chosen at 40% (m/m) and the degree of crosslinking at 30% (n/n), the resultant polymer beads had good selectivity (α = 2.77) and good physical properties. The effects of pH and temperature were studied. It turned out that the functionalization of polymers of BSA prepared via inverse-phase suspension polymerization exhibited specific recognition for BSA. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012