Biomolecular Fishing: Design, Green Synthesis and Performance of L-Leucine-Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

Ana I. Furtado, R. Viveiros, Vasco D. B. Bonifácio, André Melo, T. Casimiro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
55 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Biopurification is a challenging and growing market. Despite great efforts in the past years, current purification strategies still lack specificity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. The development of more sustainable functional materials and processes needs to address pressing environmental goals, efficiency, scale-up, and cost. Herein, l-leucine (LEU)-molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), LEU-MIPs, are presented as novel biomolecular fishing polymers for affinity sustainable biopurification. Rational design was performed using quantum mechanics calculations and molecular modeling for selecting the most appropriate monomers. LEU-MIPs were synthesized for the first time by two different green approaches, supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) technology and mechanochemistry. A significant imprinting factor of 12 and a binding capacity of 27 mg LEU/g polymer were obtained for the LEU-MIP synthesized in scCO2 using 2-vinylpyridine as a functional monomer, while the LEU-MIP using acrylamide as a functional monomer synthesized by mechanochemistry showed an imprinting factor of 1.4 and a binding capacity of 18 mg LEU/g polymer, both systems operating at a low binding concentration (0.5 mg LEU/mL) under physiological conditions. As expected, at a higher concentration (1.5 mg LEU/mL), the binding capacity was considerably increased. Both green technologies show high potential in obtaining ready-to-use, stable, and low-cost polymers with a molecular recognition ability for target biomolecules, being promising materials for biopurification processes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9179-9186
Number of pages8
JournalACS Applied Polymer Materials
Volume8
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2023

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