Engineering membranes for molecular recognition
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Engineering membranes for molecular recognition Gianluca Ciardelli, Beatrice Cioni, Riccardo Netri, Francesco Porciani, Davide Silvestri, Caterina Cristallini1, Niccoletta Barbani and Paolo Giusti. Department of Chemical Engineering, Industrial Chemistry and Material Science, University of Pisa, via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 Pisa, Italy. 1 C.N.R Institute for Composite and Biomedical Materials, Pisa, Italy. ABSTRACT The technology of molecular imprinting permits recognition sites to be inserted into a polymeric material through the polymerisation of a monomer in the presence of a template, or through the dissolution of a preformed polymer in a solution containing the template and then crosslinking or phase inversion so as to obtain the matrix-template complex. This paper will focus on the application of both techniques in the realisation of polymeric membranes with molecular recognition properties in aqueous environments.
INTRODUCTION Molecular imprinting polymers (MIPs) are usually obtained through polymerisation in the presence of the template in order to incorporate specific sites into the polymeric matrix [1]. After polymerisation the template molecule is removed and free imprinted cavities are available for substrate rebinding [2-5]. The application of molecularly imprinted materials for the realisation of devices for affinity separation, antibody binding and enzyme mimics, biomimetic sensors, was extensively reviewed [6-10] while recent developments (e.g. smart imprinted polymers), and perspective area evolution excellently examined by Cormack and Mosbach [11]. Significant efforts have been devoted to develop rational approaches to design MIPs for the perspective application [12] and to screen their selectivity [13]. An interesting approach consists in developing an imprint matrix by the phase inversion technique. If the preparation of the membrane is carried out in the presence of a template molecule, with which the polymeric material interacts via functional groups, an imprinted material with selective recognition capability for the template itself can be prepared. The preparation of new polymeric membranes using molecular imprinting technology for application in blood filtration devices was carried out in our laboratories [14]. Membranes based on a acrylic acid-acrylonitrile copolymer, produced through phase inversion, were modified by introducing into their structure specific binding sites for uric acid. Materials prepared are intended to selectively remove uric acid (rebinding of uric acid resulted 2.4 times higher than that of theophylline, a molecule of similar structure (Figure 1)). Porous supports of ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol-dextran blends were obtained using α-amylase as template. After extraction, properties of imprinted membranes were confirmed by comparison of rebinding and selectivity results (rebinding of imprinting enzymes 1.96 times higher than that of albumin) [15]. In this paper we describe the preparation of membranes from methylmethacrylate-co-acrylic acid (a material considered more s
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