Molecular Recognition in Continuous Polymer Rods Prepared by a Molecular Imprinting Technique

As new separation media, continuous rods of molecularly imprinted polymers were prepared by an in situ method. The preparation procedure was simple and easy to perform: a template compound, a functional monomer which interacts with the template molecules, and a cross-linker were placed in a stainless steel column and heated for polymerization. In this study, diaminonaphthalene and phenylalanine anilide were used as model template molecules. The molecular recognition capabilities of the prepared molecular-imprinted polymer rods were evaluated by separating positional isomers of diaminonaphthalene and resolving enantiomers of phenylalanine anilide. The results showed that the original template compounds were more strongly retained than their isomers. It is suggested that the templates were successfully imprinted in the prepared polymer rods by the employed in situ method.