Preparation and Properties of Hollow Magnetic Liquid Crystal Molecularly Imprinted Polymers as Silybin Sustained‐release Carriers

In this work, a new drug carrier, the hollow magnetic silybin liquid crystal molecular imprinted polymer (HMS@LC‐MIP) was prepared through the reverse atom radical transfer polymerization(RATRP) method. In order to decrease the degree of cross‐linker, the liquid crystal ingredient methylphenyl dicyclohexyl ethylene, a kind of physical cross‐linker, being able to replace the chemical cross‐linker partly, was introduced into the synthetic system. The characterizations of HMS@LC‐MIPs were investigated by FT‐IR, VSM, TEM and so on. A series of adsorption experiments showed the maximum adsorption capacity and the adsorption equilibrium time of HMS@LC‐MIP were 18.53 mg g −1 and 180 min, respectively, and the relative selectivity factor β =2.06 implied HMS@LC‐MIP had the high selectivity to the template. The in‐vitro release experiments exhibited HMS@LC‐MIP possessed the good responsiveness to pH values and the desirable slow release performance with 48 h of sustaining time. In short, the HMS@LC‐MIP should be of a potential as drug sustained‐release agent in the future.