Electrospun nanofiber membranes from polysulfones with chiral selector aimed for optical resolution

Polysulfones with three types of alanyl residue, such as N-α-acetylalanine (Ac-Ala-OH), N-α-benzoylalanine (Bzo-Ala-OH), and N-α-benzyloxycarbonylalanine (Z-Ala-OH), as chiral selectors were prepared by polymer reaction. The resulting modified polysulfones showed chiroptical properties, indicating that the chiral selector residues were successfully introduced into the polysulfone. Nanofiber membranes prepared from the polymeric materials showed adsorption selectivity toward mixtures of racemic Glu, which were adopted as model racemates. Flux values for the nanofiber membranes were enhanced two to three orders of magnitude in comparison with the corresponding typical membranes, but without reduction in permselectivity. In the present study, it is shown that nanofiber is a suitable membrane form not only for molecularly imprinted membranes, but it exhibits enhanced throughput in comparison with typical dense membranes without concurrent reduction in permselectivity.