Reversible Molecular Adsorption Based on Multiple-Point Interaction by Shrinkable Gels
Taro Oya,
1
Takashi Enoki,
1
Alexander Yu. Grosberg,
1
Satoru Masamune,
2
Takaharu Sakiyama,
1
Yukikazu Takeoka,
1
Kazunori Tanaka,
1
Guoqiang Wang,
1
Yasar Yilmaz,
1
Michael S. Feld,
3
Ramachandra Dasari,
3
Toyoichi Tanaka
1
A general approach is presented for creating polymer
gels that can recognize and capture a target molecule by multiple-point interaction and that can reversibly change their affinity to the target
by more than one order of magnitude. The polymers consist of majority
monomers that make the gel reversibly swell and shrink and minority
monomers that constitute multiple-point adsorption centers for the
target molecule. Multiple-point interaction is experimentally proven by
power laws found between the affinity and the concentration of the
adsorbing monomers within the gels.
1 Department of Physics and Center for
Materials Science and Engineering,
2 Department of
Chemistry,
3 George R. Harrison Spectroscopy
Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: toyo{at}mit.edu
