Electrospun PCL Fibers Enhanced With Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for the Adsorption of Pharmaceutical Drugs

ABSTRACT

Pharmaceutical micropollutants persist through conventional wastewater treatment and pose ecological and health risks. In this study, diclofenac‐imprinted polymers were synthesized by bulk polymerization, yielding particles of approximately 400 nm. These were embedded into electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) mats prepared from 10%–20% PCL solutions. Scanning electron microscopy revealed bead‐free fibers at higher PCL concentrations and indicated that molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were partially exposed at the fiber surface. Adsorption experiments using UV–vis spectroscopy with a 10 ^{− 4} M diclofenac solution, followed by desorption in water, showed that neat PCL adsorbs diclofenac due to water uptake. Incorporation of MIPs increased the adsorption capacity by 25%. Adsorption efficiency increased with fiber diameter, hypothetically explained by migration of MIP particles toward the fiber surface during electrospinning. MIP‐loaded fiber mats exhibited reduced diclofenac release during desorption, indicating stronger binding interactions. Under dynamic conditions, the loaded mats removed 6.3% of diclofenac from solution after 120 min, corresponding to an improvement of approximately 20% in mean value compared to neat PCL. These results demonstrate that embedding MIPs into electrospun PCL mats enhances capture and retention of the compound. Performance can be tuned through fiber diameter and MIP loading, highlighting the potential of this material system for micropollutant filtration.