The present work shows the synergistic application of reflectance spectroscopy and core-shell molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for rapid quantification of tartrazine in soft drinks. Studies evaluated the performance of the MIPs synthesized in the presence of silica nanoparticles unfunctionalized and functionalized with [3-(methacryloyloxy)propyl]trimethoxysilane. Although the use of functionalized silica nanoparticles promoted the highest adsorption capability of tartrazine, the material was found to be less selective when it was applied in real samples. Interestingly, the most accurate results were obtained via the application of the MIP synthesized in the presence of unfunctionalized silica nanoparticles (SiO2@MIP). The optimized core-shell MIP was also characterized by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The use of direct reflectance spectroscopy in the analyte det...

Methylmercury (MeHg+) is a mercury species that is very toxic for humans, and its monitoring and sorption from environmental samples of water are a public health concern. In this work, a combination of theory and experiment was used to rationally synthesize an ion-imprinted polymer (IIP) with the aim of the extraction of MeHg+ from samples of water. Interactions among MeHg+ and possible reaction components in the pre-polymerization stage were studied by computational simulation using density functional theory. Accordingly, 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (MBI) and 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), acrylic acid (AA) and ethanol were predicted as excellent sulfhydryl ligands, a functional monomer and porogenic solvent, respectively. Characterization studies by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) revealed the obtention of porous materials with specific surface areas...