Synthesis of creatinine-imprinted poly(β-cyclodextrin) for the specific binding of creatinine

An artificial receptor for creatinine was synthesized by the method of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). β-Cyclodextrin was used as a monomer cross-linked with epichlorohydrin in the presence of creatinine, which was a template for the imprinting. Different molar ratios of monomer to template were used to synthesize the polymers so that better specific adsorption ability towards creatinine could be achieved. The results showed that to carry out the polymerization with a molar ratio of monomer to template of 3:2 and monomer to cross-linking agent of 1:10 was proper. N-hydroxysuccinimide and 2-pyrrolinidone were used as the analogues of creatinine in the adsorption experiments of multi-component solutions to reveal the specific recognition ability of the molecularly imprinted poly(β-cyclodextrin) (poly(β-CD)) for the template molecule, creatinine. One such detection interference of creatinine was creatine, which also co-exists in serum. Hence, adsorption experiments of creatinine/creatine binary mixture were also carried out to investigate and confirm the specific binding of the creatinine-imprinted poly(β-cyclodextrin) towards creatinine. The hydroxyl groups of the imprinted poly(β-CD) was further capped by chlorotrimethylsilane (CTMS) to investigate the interaction between creatinine and the imprinted poly(β-CD). The adsorption resulting from the mixture solution by MIPs suggested that the creatinine-imprinted poly(β-CD) demonstrated superior binding effect for the target molecule, creatinine, rather than creatine, N-hydroxysuccinimide and 2-pyrrolinidone.