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Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Engineering Molecular Recognition with Bio-mimetic Polymers on Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Published on: January 10, 2017
Clean synthesis of molecular recognition polymeric materials with chiral sensing capability using supercritical fluid
Mara Soares da Silva1, Eva R Vão, Márcio Temtem
1REQUIMTE, Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
Abstract:
Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) of poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) were synthesized for the first time in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO(2)), using Boc-L-tryptophan as template. Supercritical fluid technology provides a clean and one-step synthetic route for the preparation of affinity polymeric materials with sensing capability for specific molecules. The polymeric materials were tested as stationary HPLC phases for the enantiomeric separation of L- and D-tryptophan. HPLC results prove that the synthesized MIPs are able to recognize the template molecule towards its enantiomer which opens up potential applications in chromatographic chiral separation.
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