Novel composite poly(4-vinylpyridine)/polypropylene membranes with recognition properties for (S)-naproxen

In the last few years, molecular imprinting technology has entered in different fields of chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology and medicine. The technique allows us to introduce the molecular memory of the substrate to be recognized in a polymeric material during its preparation. In the present paper, molecularly imprinted enantioselective polymer membranes were prepared by photo-copolymerization of commercial polypropylene membranes with the functional monomer 4-vinylpyridine. The (S)-naproxen was used as a template molecule. Enantioselectivity studies in a dead-end filtration system showed the recognition properties of the imprinted membranes, which exhibited a selective transport of the (S)-enantiomer.