Preparation of molecularly imprinted polymer for testosterone determination

Testosterone which is an androgenous steroid hormone extreted from testis by 90-95 percent has an active role on carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism. Testosterone level abnormalities have vital consequences such as diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, heart failure, and even cardial sudden death. On the other hand, testosterone, exhibits endocrine disrupting activity by interfering with environmental samples. Therefore, accurate and reliable determination of testosterone is of great importance. In this study, the synthesis of testosterone imprinted p(HEMA-MAAL) nanoparticles that would allow the qualitative and quantitative determination of testosterone in environmental samples such as water, sediment and complex biological matrices such as serum was carried out with surfactant-free emulsion polymerization. For this purpose, methacryloylido-L-alanine (MAAL) as functional monomer, 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) as monomer, ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as crosslinker, and testosterone (TSN) as template molecule were used. After removal of the template, synthesized TSN-imprinted p(HEMA-MAAL) nanoparticles were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), size analysis (Zeta Sizer), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analysis (DTA-TGA).The effects of some parameters such as sorbent amount, duration, initial concentration and temperature on adsorption were investigated in order to optimize adsorption conditions for TSN-imprinted p (HEMA-MAAL) nanoparticles. It was determined that it can be possible to complete testosterone adsorption with a small amount of sorbent such as 2.5 mg in a period of 4 hours and that TSN-imprinted p (HEMAMAAL) nanoparticles can be repeatedly used without a significant change in their adsorption capacities.