Design of EGDMA-crosslinked theophylline imprinted polymer with high specificity and selectivity

An attempt has been made to design theophylline selective polymers with maximum selectivity and specificity, and to relate the rebinding capacity of the polymers with the degree of crosslinking, as well as with the template-monomer ratio. The theophylline imprinted and non-imprinted polymers based on methacrylic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as crosslinking agent (35-80mol%) were prepared. The developed imprinted polymers were characterized by FT-IR, H-1 and C-13-NMR spectra. Equilibrium binding of theophylline by the imprinted and non-imprinted polymers were investigated and optimized the conditions. Imprinted polymers showed specific binding of the template theophylline. Selectivity of the imprinted polymers was investigated towards caffeine and nicotine. Imprinted polymers showed specific and selective binding of theophylline, which varied with the degree of EGDMA crosslinking. Equilibrium rebinding experiments proved that imprinted polymer with moderate (70%) crosslinking with 1:2 template-functional monomer ratio is ideal with maximum specificity and selectivity.