Construction of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microspheres by Using Helical Substituted Polyacetylene and Application...

Chiral molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres (MIPMs) reported so far are majorly limited to being constructed by using achiral polymer together with chiral template. The present contribution reports on a unique type of chiral MIPMs consisting of chirally helical substituted polyacetylene, which are prepared through suspension polymerization by using (a)chiral acetylenics as monomer and chiral Boc-d/l-proline as template. The resulting MIPMs after removing the template show optical activity that is derived from the chirally helical structures of substituted polyacetylene. The microspheres demonstrate enantio-differentiating ability in releasing the enantiopure templates. A complete release of the template provides the chiral MIPMs. Worthy to mention is that the two chiral sources (chirally helical conformation and chiral template configuration) work in a synergistic way, obviously increasing the MIPMs' enantiodiscrimination ability. The present study develops a strategy for preparing chiral MIPMs, which are expected to find significant applications in chiral separation, enantioselective release of chiral drugs, etc.