Retentivity and enantioselectivity of uniformly sized molecularly imprinted polymers for d-chlorpheniramine and -brompheniramine in hydro-organic mobile phases

Abstract

Uniformly sized molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for d-chlorpheniramine (CP) and -brompheniramine (BP) have been prepared by a multi-step swelling and polymerization method using methacrylic acid (MAA) or 2-(trifluoromethyl)acrylic acid (TFMAA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a functional monomer and cross-linker, respectively. The retentive and enantioselective properties of CP, BP and their structurally related compounds on the MIPs were evaluated using hydro-organic mobile phases. CP and BP enantiomers were retained the most as a monovalent cation on MAA- co-EDMA polymers and a divalent cation on TFMAA- co-EDMA polymers. Ion exchange and hydrophobic interactions could mainly work for the retention and enantioseparation of CP and BP on both MAA- co-EDMA and TFMAA- co-EDMA polymers in hydro-organic mobile phases. Though the respective MIPs gave the highest enantioselectivity for the template molecule, cross-reactivity for CP and BP was observed with them.