Catalytically active polymers obtained by molecular imprinting and their application in chemical reaction engineering

Molecular imprinting is a way of creating polymers bearing artificial receptors. It allows the fabrication of highly selective plastics by polymerizing monomers in the presence of a template. This technique primarily had been developed for the generation of biomimetic materials to be used in chromatographic separation, in extraction approaches and in sensors and assays. Beyond these applications, in the past few years molecular imprinting has become a tool for producing new kinds of catalysts. For catalytic applications, the template must be chosen, so that it is structurally comparable with the transition state (a transition state analogue, TSA) of a reaction, or with the product or substrate. The advantage of using these polymeric catalysts is obvious: the backbone withstands more aggressive conditions than a bio material could ever survive. Results are presented showing the applicability of a molecularly imprinted catalyst in different kinds of chemical reactors. It is demonstrated that the catalysts can be utilized not only in batch but also in continuously driven reactors and that their performance can be improved by means of chemical reaction engineering.