Synthetic hosts by monomolecular imprinting inside dendrimers

Steven C. Zimmerman (), Michael S. Wendland, Neal A. Rakow, Ilya Zharov and Kenneth S. Suslick
Additional contact information
Steven C. Zimmerman: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Michael S. Wendland: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Neal A. Rakow: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ilya Zharov: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Kenneth S. Suslick: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Nature, 2002, vol. 418, issue 6896, 399-403

Abstract: Abstract Synthetic host systems capable of selectively binding guest molecules are of interest for applications ranging from separations and chemical or biological sensing to the development of biomedical materials. Such host systems can be efficiently prepared by ‘imprinting’ polymers or inorganic materials with template molecules, which, upon removal, leave behind spatially arranged functional groups that act as recognition sites1,2,3,4. However, molecularly imprinted polymers have limitations, including incomplete template removal, broad guest affinities and selectivities, and slow mass transfer5,6,7,8. An alternative strategy for moulding desired recognition sites uses combinatorial libraries of assemblies that are made of a relatively small number of molecules, interconverting in dynamic equilibrium; upon addition of a target molecule, the library equilibrium shifts towards the best hosts9,10,11. Here we describe the dynamic imprinting of dendritic macromolecules with porphyrin templates to yield synthetic host molecules containing one binding site each. The process is based on our general strategy to prepare cored dendrimers12,13, and involves covalent attachment of dendrons to a porphyrin core, cross-linking of the end-groups of the dendrons, and removal of the porphyrin template by hydrolysis. In contrast to more traditional polymer imprinting, our approach ensures nearly homogeneous binding sites and quantitative template removal. Moreover, the hosts are soluble in common organic solvents and amenable to the incorporation of other functional groups, which should facilitate further development of this system for novel applications.

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature00877 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:418:y:2002:i:6896:d:10.1038_nature00877

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature00877

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().