This article presents an interesting study on molecular self-assembly and its effect on steric recognition by molecularly imprinted polymers. With S-naproxen as the template and acrylamide as the functional monomer, the self-assembly appears to play important roles in the selective adsorption, affecting not only the adsorption amount but also the enantioselective recognition. Both of them become evident by the change of monomer-template ratio. An increase in the monomer-template ratio will result in a higher level of adsorption. The best selectivity for steric recognition is, however, shown at an optimal composition (corresponding to the saturation interaction of monomer and template). A higher or lower monomer-template ratio leads to a dramatic decrease in this selectivity. Related information indicates that this may be a result from the matched arrangement between the binding sites and the template, which makes the binding sites capable of selectively recognizing the imprint species.

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This article presents an original work contributing to the rational design of imprinted catalyst by molecular self-assembly toward predetermined high specificity. Assembling with p-nitrophenyl phosphate as the transition state analogue (TSA) of pnitrophenyl acetate esterolysis and 1-vinylimidazole as the functional monomer, the imprinted catalyst was prepared. An increase in the amount of assembled monomer results in a higher activity of hydrolysis, which, however, does not lead to an improvement of specificity. The best specificity is shown at the optimal self-assembly (corresponding to a stoichiometric interaction of monomer-TSA). Higher or lower an amount of assembled monomer would lead to a dramatic decrease in this specificity. Related information indicates that these may be a result of increasing specific interaction between the TSA and binding sites, which make the catalyst capable of selectively recognizing the transition state and promoting the conversion from reactant to the transition state.