Archetypical Conductive Polymer Structure for Specific Interaction with Proteins

A series of 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP) functionalized polypyrrole terpolymers, capable of specific binding to IgE antibodies (proteins), have been synthesized using oxidizing initiator, ammonium persulfate and were characterized by ¹H-NMR, IR, DSC, Light Scattering etc. The terpolymers were composed of monomers and macromonomers: monomer (pyrrole), macromonomer A (pyrrole with pendant ethylene glycol) and macromonomer B (pyrrole with pendant DNP) with specific functionality of conductance, processiblity and binding, respectively. The terpolymers are found to be semiconductive, (5 × 10^?6 S cm^?1) by itself without the addition of doping agents. Molecular dynamics simulation of terpolymer shows that the DNP-(2,4-dinitrophenyl) functional group extends out from the polymer backbone and thus, is available for binding. The DNP functional groups on the terpolymer achieve steady state binding with anti-DNP IgE proteins at nanomolar concentrations in solution. The terpolymer was blended with sulfonated polystyrene and processed in fibers which exhibited effective specific binding to fluorescently tagged IgE proteins and therefore, possessed the potential to be an active component in biosensor.