Benzamidine-imprinted polymers

Schematically shown in Fig. 5 is the preparation of an enzyme mimic for the hydrolysis of ester 6 by molecular imprinting. Phosphonate 5 is an analog of the transition state for the alkaline hydrolysis of Ester 4. It was used as a template for polymerization with two equivalents of the binding-site monomer iVJV -diethyl-4-vinyl-benzamidine. Amidinium groups were chosen, because they can interact electrostatically with the side carboxyl-ate group as well as with the anionic transition state of the alkaline hydrolysis, thus achieving substrate recognition and transition-state stabilization. Polymerization of the preassembled binding-site monomer with the template (Fig. 5A) followed by template removal (Fig. 5B) leaves a cavity that acts as transition-state receptor for the ester substrate (Fig. 5C). The imprinted polymer accelerates the hydrolysis of 6 more than 100-fold compared to the reaction at the same pH in buffer solution without the polymer. The reaction kinetics is of the Michaelis-Menten type. A polymer obtained with amidinium benzoate as a control, with a statistical distribution of amidinium groups, is ca. one order of magnitude less active in the hydrolysis of 6.

The first reported preparation of capillary columns containing MIPs utilised a thermally initiated dispersion polymerisation procedure [58], The functional monomer MAA and the cross-linking monomer EDM A were used. Agglomerates of micrometre-sized globular polymer particles were claimed to be prepared in situ in the capillary. Molecular imprinting of L-phenylalanine anilide, pentamidine and benzamidine was undertaken. A pH-dependent retardation of pentamidine over benzamidine in the pentamidine capillary was observed, while the opposite. 

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