Metal Ion Mediated Molecular Imprinting

Figure 2.4 Metal ion mediated molecular imprinting. Cross-linking and polymerization (1) extraction of template (2) and rebinding of template (3).

The synthesis of MIPs is performed by copolymerization of appropriate monomers in the presence of a template ligand. The monomers interact with the template by non-covalent interactions, reversible covalent interactions, or metal ion-mediated interactions. The types of interactions that are usually exploited in molecular imprinting are as follows ... 

Matsui, J. Nicholls, LA. Takeuchi, T. Mosbach, K. Karube, I. Metal ion mediated recognition in molecularly imprinted polymers. Anal. Chim. Acta 1996, 335, 71-77. 

The principal idea behind MIP synthesis is the generation of solution state complexes between the template ligand in hand and appropriate functional monomers, followed by subsequent freezing of these complexes by copolymerization of the above with an excess of a cross-linking monomer. These monomer-template complexes are stabilized by non-covalent interactions, reversible covalent interactions, or metal ion-mediated interactions. The types of interactions that are usually exploited in molecular imprinting are 1) cleavable covalent bonds 2) tt-tt interactions 3) hydrogen bonds 4) hydrophobic van der Waals interactions 5) crown-ether/cyclodextrin type interactions 6) metal-Ugand... 

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