Discovery and Development of OMNiMIPs: One MoNomer Molecularly Imprinted Polymers
- PDF / 677,079 Bytes
- 3 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 58 Downloads / 220 Views
1005-Q05-05
Discovery and Development of OMNiMIPs: One MoNomer Molecularly Imprinted Polymers David A. Spivak1, Martha Sibrian-Vazquez2, and Stephen Houck2 1 Chemistry, Louisiana State University, 232 Choppin Hall, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803 2 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803 ABSTRACT There is enormous potential for the analytical applications of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs); for example, the imprinted polymer sites can function as the molecular recognition element of sensors, immunoassays, and separation media. However, difficulties with formulation variables and the need for empirical optimization have inhibited the widespread use of MIPs by the general scientific community. While investigating new crosslinkers for molecular imprinting, we have recently discovered a much simpler approach to MIP formation which utilizes a single crosslinking monomer, NOBE (N,Obismethacryloyl ethanolamine) in addition to template, solvent and initiator (shown in Scheme 1). We have given this molecular imprinting method the acronym ìOMNiMIPsî which stands for one monomer molecularly imprinted
Scheme 1. Outline of the OMNiMIP strategy. 1
polymers. This new formulation eliminates variables such as choice of functional monomer (FM) and crosslinker (XL), the ratio of functional monomer to crosslinker (FM/XL), and the ratio of functional monomer to template which normally complicates MIP design. The affects of OMNiMIP performance variables toward molecular recognition indicate significant differences between these new materials and traditional MIPs formulated with ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and methacrylic acid (MAA). These differences and the utility of OMNiMIPs will be discussed.
INTRODUCTION The OMNiMIP process differs from customary molecular imprinting methods in that there is only one monomer for binding and crosslinking. In contrast, the traditional imprinting methodology utilizes separate functional monomer(s) for binding the template molecule, which are immobilized in their imprinted positions by copolymerization with a non-interactive crosslinking monomer. A first important result of the OMNiMIP method is that it removes problems with optimizing the ratio of crosslinker to functional monomer, which is often determined empirically. This empirical process is very time-consuming and not yet generalized for any substrate of interest; consequently, this has inhibited the widespread use of MIPs by the biomedical research community. A second improvement of OMNiMIPs relates to the large amount of crosslinker that is needed for imprinting, which limits the amount of functional monomer that can be used in conventionally formed MIPs. This has a limiting impact on the performance of the imprinted polymer.2-3 OMNiMIPs, on the other hand, do not suffer as critically from this problem, because there is no loss of either functional monomer or crosslinker when they are combined into the single crosslinking monomer employed by our new method. A third finding with OMNiMIPs is that the selectivity performance b
Data Loading...
