Synthesis of molecular imprinted beta cyclodextrins oligomers in water

hydrophobic molecules in aqueous solution, however, with limited selectivity. Templated synthesis of Cyclodextrin polymers was introduced by Komiyama. By use of simple templates, such as cholesterol, polymers with improved selectivity for the template molecules were achieved. In most of these studies the synthesis was performed in non-aqueous solvents. Since water plays a major role in the formation and stabilization of inclusion complexes between cyclodextrins and a large number of guest molecules, the formation and stability of inclusion complexes, biosensor applications aim at detecting compounds in aqueous solution and, therefore, molecular imprinting of cyclodextrins polymers in aqueous solution is of great interest. In this paper, molecular imprinting of beta cyclodextrins has been performed in water by use of diiodobenzene as template and epichlorohydrin as a crosslinker. Inclusion complex formation between them prior to polymerization was proven by 2d-ROESY NMR. Water soluble CD dimmers were proven by MALDI-TOF MS to be the dominating products after synthesis.