Eur. Phys. J. E (2005) 17: 515-520
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2004-10156-3

Original Article

Chiral molecular imprinting in liquid-crystalline network^⋆

¹ Laboratoire Interactions Moléculaires et Réactivité Chimique et Photochimique, UMR CNRS 5623, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France
² Laboratoire Hétérochimie Fondamentale et Appliquée, UMR CNRS 5069, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France

^* e-mail: mauzac@chimie.ups-tlse.fr

Received: 24 September 2004
Accepted: 25 July 2005
Published online: 23 August 2005

Abstract

A cholesteric imprinted elastomer was obtained by cross-linking a nematic side-chain polysiloxane around a chiral template. The template was first linked to some functionalised groups of the polymer via hydrogen-bound interactions, then was removed by washing. The sample was macroscopically oriented during the synthesis; so, both a molecular chirality and a supramolecular phase chirality were topologically imprinted inside the network. Batch rebinding experiments, performed in the presence of the template or of the other enantiomer, showed that the imprinted polymer has a pronounced stereo-selectivity towards the template enantiomer. The rebinding capacity appeared to be greater than an unimprinted mesogenic network as well as than an imprinted non mesogenic one.