Synthesis of nano-sized stereoselective imprinted polymer by copolymerization of (S)-2-(acrylamido) propanoic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate in the presence of racemic propranolol and copper ion

•A new chiral functional monomer of (S)-2-(acrylamido) propanoic acid was synthesized.•(S)-propranolol-selective imprinted polymer was synthesized using the chiral monomer.•Racemic propranolol mixed with Cu(II) was used as template in the imprinting.•Density functional theory was employed to clarify the imprinting mechanism.•(S)-propranolol-Cu(II) complex was shown to conduct the imprinting process.

A new chiral functional monomer of (S)-2-(acrylamido) propanoic acid was obtained by reaction of (l)-alanine with acryloyl chloride. The resulting monomer was characterized by FT-IR and HNMR and then utilized for the preparation of chiral imprinted polymer (CIP). This was carried out by copolymerization of (l)-alanine-derived chiral monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, in the presence of racemic propranolol and copper nitrate, via precipitation polymerization technique, resulting in nano-sized networked polymer particles. The polymer obtained was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and FT-IR. The non-imprinted polymer was also synthesized and used as blank polymer. Density functional theory (DFT) was also employed to optimize the structures of two diasterometric ternary complexes, suspected to be created in the pre-polymerization step, by reaction of optically active isomers of propranolol, copper ion and (S)-2-(acrylamido) propanoic acid. Relative energies and other characteristics of the described complexes, calculated by the DFT, predicted the higher stability of (S)-propranolol involved complex, compared to (R)-propranolol participated complex. Practical batch extraction test which employed CIP as solid phase adsorbent, indicated that the CIP recognized selectively (S)-propranolol in the racemic mixture of propranolol; whereas, the non-imprinted polymer (NIP) showed no differentiation capability between two optically active isomers of propranolol.