Dickey invents molecular imprinting

At a lecture delivered in Philadelphia s Franklin Institute on March 17, 1949, Pauling reported some of the results from Dickey s experiments [23]. Silica gels had been prepared by procedures analogous to the formation of antibodies , i.e. in accordance with the selective theory, and the study was published later the same year [24]. The method described involved polymerisation of sodium silicate in the presence of a dye. Four different dyes were used, namely methyl, ethyl, /i-propyl and -butyl orange (Fig. 1.3). As much as possible of the dye was subsequently removed, and in rebinding experiments it was found that silica prepared in the presence of any of these pattern moleeules would bind the pattern molecule in preference to the other three dyes. Table 1.2 shows the selective increase in pattern dye sorption capacities of the gels as related to a control gel, prepared in the absence of dye. 

Shortly after this work had appeared, several research groups pursued the preparation of specific adsorbents using Dickey s method. The following section discusses the various approaches and systems used. 

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