Molecular Recognition Studies Based on Imprinting Technology

Abstract: In this thesis, I have focused on five main research areas: 1). A new type of imprinted polymer has been developed, namely the amide MIP. The amide functional monomers showed better hydrogen bonding capabilities in polar organic solvents and the resulting polymers exhibited good enantiomeric recognition properties in organic media. Furthermore, by using the amide monomers instead of the carboxyl monomers, imprinted polymers could be prepared without the excess of charged groups which often leads to the problem of swelling and non-specific interactions. 2). By using the amide MIPs, the recognition mechanism of imprinted polymers has been studied in detail. It was found that the shape, size and the nature and distribution of the functional groups of the sample molecule all had a marked influence on the selectivity. 3). The solvent effect was also studied, it was found that the recognition properties of imprinted polymers could be dramatically influenced by the assay solvent system used. By using a simply optimized solvent system, our results showed that the imprinted polymers? recognition performances could be greatly improved compared with the results obtained previously. 4). The amide MIPs were also found to be capable of selective recognition in aqueous media. Our results showed that the selective binding in organic media by imprinted polymers was mainly determined by the polar interactions between the sample molecules and the recognition sites, whereas in aqueous media, hydrophobic interactions played a major role. 5). Attempts have also been made to use imprinted polymers to separate chiral compounds, as enzyme and receptor mimics and to make imprinted polymer beads in aqueous media.