Influence of Composition and Morphology on Template Recognition in Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

A combination of theoretical and experimental studies has provided correlations between molecularly imprinted polymer composition, morphology, and recognition behavior obtained using a series of bupivacaine-imprinted methacrylic acid (MAA)-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate copolymers differing in molar ratios of the respective monomers. Results extracted from analysis of molecular dynamics (MD) trajectory data demonstrated that stability and frequency of interactions between bupivacaine and the monomers in the prepolymerization phase were strongly affected by minor changes in polymer composition, which in turn affected binding site affinity and heterogeneity of the imprinted polymers. Moreover, through the characterization of polymer morphology, we show that higher molar fractions of MAA resulted in polymeric materials with increased pore size, a feature that enhanced the binding capacity of the polymers. Furthermore, the results presented point at the strength of MD for predicting MIP-template binding capacity and affinity.