Impact of functional monomers, cross-linkers and porogens on morphology and recognition properties of 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)ethylamine imprinted polymers

The main objective of this paper was to examined the impact of synthetic reagents on morphology and recognition properties of 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)ethylamine imprinted polymers. The effect of nine different functional monomers, five porogens and four cross-linkers on the binding capacity of particles was analyzed. The results revealed that the highest imprinting factor (1.81) showed the polymer obtained from methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate in toluene. The binding capacities of imprinted (MIP1) and non-imprinted (NIP1) materials were 135.3 ± 9.8 and 74.8 ± 7.8 μmol g− 1, respectively. The specific surface areas were 55.05 ± 3.89 for MIP1 and 38.72 ± 2.40 m2 g− 1 for NIP1. The SEM analysis confirmed that the surface of MIP1 is rougher and denser than NIP1. Structural analysis supported by 13C CP/MAS NMR spectra was also performed. The binding abilities of homoveratrylamine and eight structurally related compounds to MIP1 showed that strong interactions between carboxylic group in the polymer and amine group in the analyte together with its molecular volume govern the recognition mechanism.