ISSN 1560-0904, Polymer Science, Ser. B, 2009, Vol. 51, Nos. 9–10, pp. 344–351. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2009. 344 1 INTRODUCTION Flavonoids, or polyphenolic pigments, are widely present in plants. Morin (3, 5, 7, 2', 4'-pentahydroxy- flavone) is a phenolic compound derived by hydroxyl substitution on the flavone chromophore, this com- pound being a major component of the plants [1, 2]. The flavone-based compounds, such as morin, are known to form stable complexes with metal cations, e.g. iron. Iron has been known as an essential mineral for our bodies for over a century, which functions primarily as a carrier of oxygen in the body, both as a part of hemo- globin in the blood and of myoglobin in the muscles. It also aids in immune function, cognitive development, temperature regulation, energy metabolism, and work performance. About 90% of the iron in our body is conserved and reused every day; the rest is excreted. In order to maintain iron balance in the body, dietary iron must supply enough iron to meet the 10% gap that our body has excreted or else deficiency will result. Groundwater, which is used for drinking, is often contaminated by organic or inorganic micropollut- ants; in particular, iron is the typical unwanted constit- uent in drinking water causing aesthetic problem [3, 4]. One of the possible approaches to extraction of impurities from groundwater may be a technique of the molecular imprinting. 1 The text was submitted by the authors in English. This technique is a specific chemical procedure for the generation of explicit nano-cavities that can mimic the behavior (in terms of binding) of naturally occurring receptor sites [5]. The molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are generated in the pres- ence of a template molecule (the analyte of interest). In non-covalent molecular imprinting (the most com- mon approach) the template interacts with a func- tional monomer via hydrogen bonding, electrostatic or hydrophobic interactions. The pre-polymerization complex is then incorporated into a polymer network by a cross-linker. The polymerization process usually proceeds via a free-radical mechanism resulting in the production of a rigidly cross-linked polymer matrix monolith. After that the monolith is crushed and ground to a suitable size. The template can then be removed by a mechanism of washing involving a sol- vent (usually methanol) and an acid or base. Following the removal of the template, the resultant imprinted polymer possesses the ability to recognize the template (or closely related structural analogues) with high selectivity and specificity [6]. One of the foremost applications of molecular imprinting is related to a solid phase extraction [7– 13]. In theory, molecular imprinting provides greatly increased selectivity and sensitivity over conventional solid phase extraction packing materials. Furthermore due to the specific nature of the interactions between rebinding template and chemical functional groups within the pores or cavities of the cross-linked poly- mer matrix, it is expected that molecularly imprinted Imprinted Polymer Particles for Iron Uptake: Synthesis, Characterization and Analytical Applications 1 Mostafa Khajeh a , Massoud Kaykhaii b , Hossein Hashemi b , and Majid Mirmoghaddam b a Department of Chemistry, University of Zabol, P.O. Box 98615-538, Zabol, Iran b Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Sistan & Balouchestan, Zahedan, Iran e-mail: m_khajeh@uoz.ac.ir Received September 1, 2008; Revised Manuscript Received February 16, 2009 Abstract—This work reports the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymer particles for selective extrac- tion and determination of iron ions from aqueous media. The polymer particles were synthesized from Fe(NO 3 ) 3 , morin, 4-vinylpyridine, ethyleneglycoldimethacrylate, and 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile and char- acterized by IR and DSC both prior to and after removing the Fe-morin complex by leaching with HCl. The effect of different parameters, such as pH, adsorption and desorption time, type and minimum amount of eluent for removing the complex from polymer was evaluated and optimized. The proposed method is char- acterized by the detection limit of 3.1 μg l –1 anddynamic linear range of 25 to 200 μg l –1 , with the relative standard deviation less than 8.8%. The method was applied to the recovery and determination of iron ions in a few real samples. DOI: 10.1134/S1560090409090048 SYNTHESIS