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Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Synthesis of a Borylated Ibuprofen Derivative Through Suzuki Cross-Coupling and Alkene Boracarboxylation Reactions
Published on: November 30, 2022
Synthesis of molecularly imprinted polymers using a functionalized initiator for chiral-selective recognition of
Weifeng Liu1,2, Clovia Holdsworth3, Lei Ye1
1Division of Pure and Applied Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Abstract:
We present a new concept of synthesis for preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers using a functionalized initiator to replace the traditional functional monomer. Using propranolol as a model template, a carboxyl-functionalized radical initiator was demonstrated to lead to high-selectivity polymer particles prepared in a standard precipitation polymerization system. When a single enantiomer of propranolol was used as template, the imprinted polymer particles exhibited clear chiral selectivity in an equilibrium binding experiment. Unlike the previous molecular imprinting systems where the active free radicals can be distant from the template-functional monomer complex, the method reported in this work makes sure that the actual radical polymerization takes place in the vicinity of the template-associated functional groups. The success of using functional initiator to synthesize molecularly imprinted polymers brings in new possibilities to improve the functional performance of molecularly imprinted synthetic receptors.
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