Molecular imprinting of polymeric core-shell nanoparticles

In order to evaluate the compatibility of structured nanoparticles produced by aqueous emulsion polymerisation with the non-covalent imprinting procedure, a number of imprinted polymeric nanoparticles have been synthesised by seeded emulsion polymerisation in the presence and absence of a porogenic solvent. Propranolol was chosen as the template molecule using methacrylic acid (MAA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as functional monomer and crosslinker respectively. The influence of the porogen and the amount of template added was studied by measuring the capacity of the polymeric particles to rebind template both in organic and aqueous buffers by radioligand binding assay. By increasing the amount of template from 0.5 to 6% (mol/mol with respect to monomers) the specific rebinding was increased from 2% to 24% in aqueous buffer and to 31% in a toluene based assay. The influence of the porosity was also established when the rebinding was performed in an organic solvent.