Molecular imprinting of nitrophenol and hydroxybenzoic acid isomers: effect of molecular structure and acidity on imprinting

Three nitrophenol isomer-imprinted polymers were prepared under the same conditions using 4-vinylpyridine as a functional monomer. Different recognition capacities for template molecules were observed for the three polymers. Another imprinting system with stronger acidity than nitrophenol isomers, 2-hydroxybenzoic acid (salicylic acid) and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, was imprinted using 4-vinylpyridine or acrylamide as functional monomer respectively. Both 4-hydroxybenzoic acid-imprinted polymers using the two monomers showed recognition ability for the template molecule. However, when acrylamide was chosen as functional monomer, the salicylic acid-imprinted polymer showed very weak recognition for the template molecule, whereas strong recognition ability of the resultant polymer for salicylic acid was observed with 4-vinylpyridine as functional monomer. It seems that the structure and acidity of template molecules is responsible for the difference in recognition, by influencing the formation and strength of interaction between template molecule and functional monomer during the imprinting process. An understanding of the mechanism of molecular imprinting and molecular recognition of MIPs will help to predict the selectivity of MIPs on the basis of template molecule properties.