Abstract

The aim was to synthesize a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) of sufficient selectivity for testosterone to facilitate sample clean-up for subsequent analysis by gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS). A structurally similar analogue, 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), was chosen as the template, rather than testosterone, to avoid the possibility of residual testosterone leaching from the MIP into sample extracts. A series of non-covalently DHT-imprinted polymers was synthesized using both conventional monomers (methacrylic acid, (trifluoromethyl)acrylic acid) and cross-linkers (ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, divinylbenzene), and also a novel cross-linker, 5α-androstane-3α17β-diacryloxy ester (AnDA). The ability of MIPs to discriminate testosterone from epitestosterone was evaluated by HPLC using three different mobile phases: ethyl acetate (EtOAc), dichloromethane:2-butanone (CH2C12:2-butanone) (90:10) and CH2C12:acetic acid (AcOH) (99:1). The MIP prepared with DHT/trifluoromethyl)acrylic acid/divinylbenzene/AnDA/chloroform (CHC13) using a CH2C12:AcOH (99:1) mobile phase, showed the greatest selectivity for testosterone compared with epitestosterone. Ongoing work is focused on investigating the application of non-covalently prepared MIPs for solid phase extraction. Verf.-Referat