Development of molecularly imprinted phase for the selective retention of stilbene-type estrogenic compounds

The non-covalent imprinting technique has been investigated for the stilbene class of artificial estrogens with a view of developing highly selective materials to assist in trace residue analysis of these compounds. A range of polymers has been synthesised and evaluated using high performance liquid chromatography. The effect of changing functional monomer, crosslinking monomer, mode of synthesis and template molecule have been investigated. Two of the synthesised polymers showed good recognition of hexestrol (template) with an imprinting factor of >6. Both polymers also exhibited good recognition of the related compounds diethylstilbestrol and dienestrol.