A series of molecularly imprinted polymers were synthesized via the electron beam radiation polymerization of functional monomer(methacrylic acid) and crosslinking agent(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) in the presence of quercetin-Ni(Ⅱ) as template and were used as a highly selective separation material for quercetin which is an important active ingredient of Chinese herbs.The interaction between quercetin and Ni(Ⅱ) was investigated with UV-Visible spectroscopy

which reveals the formation of 1∶2 complex in the system.At the same time

the ternary complexation of quercetin

Ni(Ⅱ) and methacrylic acid was verified by similar methods.The characterization of the molecularly imprinted polymer prepared and pure quercetin was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectra.The result indicated that the template molecule could be fixed in molecularly imprinted polymer and also could achieve being eluted.Furthermore

the transmission electron microscopy and adsorption dynamic experiments were used to characterize the effect of radiation dose on the morphology and adsorption capacity of molecularly imprinted polymer.The result showed that the three-dimensional cross-linked network structure of the molecularly imprinted polymer prepared in condition of 20 kGy radiation dose was more uniform

and the presence of these internal pores greatly increased the surface area of molecularly imprinted polymer and reduced the embedding of imprinting sites

which was conducive to adsorb the template molecule.In addition

the selective adsorption experiments showed that the molecularly imprinted polymer prepared exhibited significant adsorption selectivity for quercetin compared with the quercetins structural analogs (baicalein and naringenin) in the presence of Ni(Ⅱ) and the max adsorption amount reached 82.22 mol/g.The separation factors were 3.915 and 5.443

respectively.