Novel surface-modified molecularly imprinted membrane prepared with iniferter for permselective separation of lysozyme

A novel and efficient molecularly imprinted membrane (MIM) for the selective transport and separation of lysozyme was synthesized by the molecular imprinting technique. The layer of molecularly imprinted materials containing recognition sites for the lysozyme was formed on the poly(acrylontrile-co-N,N′-diethylaminodithiocarbamoylmethylstyrene) [P(AN-co-DTCS)] membrane, which was prepared via a phase inversion method and modified with photosensitive dithiocarbamate group for surface initiated living-radical polymerization. Thus obtained MIM was characterized and evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and competitive transport studies. Under the optimum conditions, the transporting factor of the lysozyme reached 2.41 when the time of permeation was 24 h. The separation of the mixture of lysozyme and bovine hemoglobin and the mixture of lysozyme and cytochrome c showed that the selectivity factor (β) reached 2.51 and 2.13, respectively. All these results indicated that the excellent selectivity separation performance of the MIM for lysozyme arose from the size and structure of the imprinted sites on the MIM, which offered great potential for separation and purification in commercial applications.