Binding Studies on Substrate- and Enantio-Selective Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

A molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared using tert-butyloxycarbonyl-L-phenylalanine as the print molecule and methacrylic acid as the functional monomer. The bulk polymer obtained was ground, sieved, packed into a column and investigated in the HPLC-mode by frontal chromatography to determine the number of binding sites and dissociation constants for the enantiomers interacting with the polymer. The dissociation constant for the L-enantiomer of the print molecule was lower than for the D-enantiomer (6.3 mM and 8.1 mM, respectively). This means that the affinity for the L-enantiomer was higher than for the D-enantiomer. The number of binding sites in the polymer giving rise to these dissociation constants were determined to be 28 μmol per g dry polymer.