Miniaturized molecularly imprinted continuous polymer rods

Molecularly imprinted continuous polymer rods are prepared inside PEEK tube s of 1 mm i.d. by an in situ preparation technique; and chiral separations on such media have been demonstrated. The miniaturized column filled with ( -)-cinchonidine-imprinted or (+)-cinchonine-imprinted polymer rods based on a copolymer of 2-(trifluoromethyl)acrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimetha crylate permitted diastereoseparation of (-)-cinchonidine and (+)-cinehonin e; the template molecule is retained to a greater extent than the correspon ding antipode. Increasing the amount of cyclohexanol in the polymerization mixture decreased the backpressure of the resultant rod and the addition of lates beads suspended in water to the prepolymerization mixture affected t he selectivity and affinity of the imprinted polymer rods. The column lengt h is adjusted easily by cutting, thus allowing easy control of retention be havior and analysis time.