Miniaturized Molecularly Imprinted Continuous Polymer Rods

Molecularly imprinted continuous polymer rods are prepared inside PEEK tubes of 1 mm i. d. by an in situ preparation technique; and chiral separations on such media have been demonstrated. The miniaturized column filled with (–)‐cinchonidine‐imprinted or (+)‐cinchonine‐imprinted polymer rods based on a copolymer of 2‐(trifluoromethyl)acrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate permitted diastereoseparation of (–)‐cinchonidine and (+)‐cinchonine; the template molecule is retained to a greater extent than the corresponding antipode. Increasing the amount of cyclohexanol in the polymerization mixture decreased the backpressure of the resultant rod and the addition of latex beads suspended in water to the prepolymerization mixture affected the selectivity and affinity of the imprinted polymer rods. The column length is adjusted easily by cutting, thus allowing easy control of retention behavior and analysis time.