The molecular imprinting technique has received significant attention due to its utility in the production of synthetic polymeric materials with predetermined ligand recognition properties [1].

It is generally accepted that the recognition properties of a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) is established during the prepolymerization stage. Previous investigations on the nature and extent of template prepolymerization complexation in a phenylalanine anilide (PA) MIP pointed at the complexity and diversity in the ensemble of complexes leading to the final “molecular memory”. In particular, conflicting models have been used to explain the observed molecular memory. Sellergren, Lepistö and Mosbach [2] proposed that selective, high-affinity sites in the final MIP were based on functional monomer-PA complexation of a 2:1 stoichiometry. Later, Katz and Davis [3] proposed that the template recognition sites arose due to a 1:1 functional monomer-template complex stoichiometry and that the effect of template dimerization is critical for the observed PA-MIP recognition properties.

In this study, we have attempted to shed new light on this as yet unresolved conflict using a series of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Results demonstrated the presence of PA-PA complexes and that the most statistically prevalent stoichiometry of functional monomer-PA complexes was of 1:1.

[1]             Alexander C, Andersson HS, Andersson LI, Ansell R, Kirsch N, Nicholls IA et al. Molecular imprinting science and technology: a survey of the literature for the years up to and including 2003, Journal of Molecular Recognition, 19, 106-180 (2006).

[2]            Sellergren B, Lepistö M, Mosbach K. Highly enantioselective and substrate selective polymers obtained by molecular imprinting utilizing noncovalent interactions. NMR and chromatographic studies on the nature of recognition, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 110, 5853-5860 (1988).

[3]             Katz A, Davis ME. Investigations into the mechanisms of molecular recognition with imprinted polymers, Macromolecules, 32, 4113-4121 (1999).