Abstract: Purification of chiral molecules is of considerable interest in the pharmaceutical, agricultural chemical, and fragrance industries. The project goal was to develop a series of custom polymers for the purification of the anti-hypertension drug S-(-)-timolol using a process called molecular imprinting. The polymers were generated by the copolymerization at 70°C of S-(-)-timolol, methacrylic acid, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate in either CHCl3 or tetrahydrofuran using azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator. Chloroform washing and acid extraction of the resulting S-(-)-timolol imprinted polymers revealed that the S-(-)-timolol was reversibly chemisorbed to the imprinted polymers. After acid extraction, the S-(-)-timolol imprinted polymers readsorbed S-(-)-timolol with a much greater affinity than with its R-(+)-timolol enantiomer. These results clearly demonstrate the feasibility of the purification of timolol enantiomers via competitive adsorption onto an S-(-)-timolol imprinted polymer.

Tweet