N-octadecyl maleamic acid (ODMA) as gelator self-assembled in solvent mixture of -hydroxyethyl methacrylate

methylacrylic acid and polyethylene glycol dimethacrylates-200 in the presence of 3-cholesteryloxycarbonylpropanoic acid (COPA) as template molecule

and turned them into thermally reversible polymerizable organogels.The resultant organogels were subsequently polymerized by in situ UV irradiation.The molecularly-imprinting polymerized organogels were obtained after removal of the template molecules through acetonitrile extracting.The cholesterol molecularly imprinted polymerized organgels (MIPO) showed significantly higher affinity for cholesterol than that for non-imprinted polymerized organgels (NIPO) in water/THF mixture (5∶6

V/V).The selectivity experiment indicated that the adsorption amount of MIPO for cholesterol (18.9 mg/g) was higher than that for stigmasterol (4.5 mg/g) and testosterone (3.6 mg/g) within 3 h since the selectivity was based on the specific binding of cholesterol to recognition sites formed in polymers.The adsorption capacity for cholesterol onto MIPO was found to increase and then decrease

but for stigmasterol and testosterone which was decreased with the increase of ODMA in organogel.The higher concentration of COPA in organogel would result the decrease of the adsorption capacity for cholesterol

but the adsorption capacity for stigmasterol and testosterone remained nearly constant.However

these results could be attributed to the high density of polymer network and stability of imprinted holes.