Incorporation of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles in electrospun polycaprolactone fibers

Abstract Polymers synthesized by molecular imprinting technology are commonly known as molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP). In this work, nanoparticles of MIP for β-caryophyllene (NP-MIP-βCP) were synthesized and incorporated into poly (e-caprolactone) PCL fibers by electrospinning, where morphological characterization was performed by SEM and average diameter of 129 ± 32.3 nm was found. Also, PCL electrospun fiber diameters without and with nanoparticles were 1.66 ± 1.12 and 0.70 ± 0.24 µm, respectively. Chemical characterization by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the synthesis of the NP-MIP-βCP and vibrational band present at 1628 cm−1 indicates the insertion of the NP-MIP-βCP into PCL fibers. It was found the influence of the incorporation of NP-MIP-βCP in thermal and tensile properties of the PCL electrospun membrane. Therefore, NP-MIP-βCP can be incorporated in PCL electrospun membranes by electrospinning and presents a potential application in the pharmaceutical and biomedicine areas, and biosensors.