BUBBLE FRACTIONATION OF ENANTIOMERS FROM SOLUTION USING MOLECULARLY IMPRINTED POLYMERS AS COLLECTORS

Adsorptive bubble separation methods have been used to enrich componen ts from both heterogeneous and homogeneous solutions. These methods ar e particularly effective for processing large solution volumes at low cost. Previous work demonstrated that chiral, surface-active collector s could be used to enrich enantiomers from homogeneous solution in a f oam fractionation process. In a significant extension of this work, th e use of highly selective molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) and he terogeneous solutions for the bubble notation of enantiomers was evalu ated. The high selectivity and ease of recycling of the MIP make this a potentially powerful approach for process-scale separations from lar ge-volume bulk solutions. New MIPs were produced with low swelling pro perties which allowed them to retain enantioselectivity after numerous recyclings.