A morphological study of molecularly imprinted polymers using the scanning electron microscope Original Research Article

Molecular imprinting is an emerging technique for producing polymers with applications in affinity-based separation, in biomimetic sensors, in catalysis, etc. This variety of uses relies upon the production of polymers with different affinities, specificities, sensitivities and loading capacities. Research into the development of molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) with new or improved morphologies – which involves modification of the polymerisation process – is therefore underway. This paper reports a comparative study of non-covalent MIPs synthesised by “bulk” polymerisation using digoxin as template. These were synthesised under different conditions, i.e., changing the functional monomers employed (methacrylic acid or 2-vinylpyridine), the porogens (acetonitrile or dichloromethane) used, and by altering the volume of the latter. The polymerisation process was allowed to proceed either under UV light or in a thermostat-controlled waterbath. The surface morphology (was determined by scanning electron microscopy) and the ability of the different polymers to selectively rebind the template was then evaluated.