Preliminary study on repeatability of molecular recognition capability of a silica-based molecularly imprinted polymer

Molecular imprinting, a templated polymerization technique, is a promising method to prepare a functional polymeric network for targeted binding of molecules in a selective recognition process. In this work, a silica-based (polysiloxane) polymer was utilized in a sol-gel process to fabricate a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP). The manufactured MIP was imprinted with a template molecule, lysozyme. To test this MIP's molecular recognitive function, the template molecule lysozyme was extracted first; then lysozyme and a competitive molecule, RNase A, were rebound; then lysozyme and RNase A were released and re-bound for a second time in order to evaluate the recognition repeatability of the MIP. Analysis of the repeated testing results implies that the template molecules' conformation and affinity played a great role in affecting the recognition accuracy and efficiency.