Screening of a molecularly imprinted sol–gel library for nafcillin recognition

Properties of tailored imprinted sol–gels are extremely dependent on the synthesis conditions and on the nature of the reagents used due to the diversity of combinatory interactions among the sol–gel components and the large number of chemical requirements for the sol–gel process. In this paper, methyltrimethyl orthosilicate was used as precursor to create molecularly imprinted polymers against the β-lactamic antibiotic nafcillin under different experimental conditions. A 22 member–library of imprinted sol–gels against nafcillin, and the respective control materials, was produced. Screening of the library members was performed by room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) flow-injection analysis and by batch RTP re-binding assays. A 2² factorial experimental design was also performed in selected sub-libraries of imprinted sol–gels as a function of the template and the additive concentrations, both using acid and basic catalysis.