Separation of chemically similar molecules by molecular recognition

Abstract

A very thin layer of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) membrane was prepared for the separation of theophylline and caffeine which are chemically identical except one methyl group, permeation characteristics of this membrane were affected by its morphology or crosslinking density. Theophylline imprinted membrane showed high selectivity for theophylline and caffeine imprinted membrane was caffeine selective.