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Science 19 November 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5444, p. 1441
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5444.1441n
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Polymer gels that swell or contract in response to changes in environmental conditions, such as solvent or temperature, can bind small molecules through nonspecific interactions such as the hydrophobic effect. Oya et al. (p. 1543) show that a polymer gel that swells in response to temperature can reversibly absorb small anions bearing multiple charges. In the swollen state, the binding affinity changed only linearly with the concentration of cationic monomers in the polymer, but in the shrunken state, the binding affinity followed a power law corresponding to the number of charges on the anion. The affinity in the shrunken state, which could be changed over several orders of magnitude, appears to result from the assembly of a multiple-contact binding site reminiscent of protein binding sites.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)