SCIENCE LAB Activities
Molecule-Sized Lock and Key
.In this laboratory, the students will make a polymer than has been created in the presence of a template molecule (an adenine derivative, ethyl adenine-9-acetate). Removal of the template molecule leaves a cavity of complementary size, shape and functionality to the template molecule. This “imprinted polymer” then can be shown to have the ability to recognize and rebind the template molecule better than a control polymer that was made under the same conditions but without the template molecule. This binding experiment is carried out by equilibrating a known amount of the individual polymers with a solution of the template. The depletion or binding of the template is followed by UV spectroscopy. This process parallels many of the recognition processes used by biological molecules such as enzymes, antibodies, and cell receptors.