title: Experimental and theoretical investigation of the complexation of methacrylic acid and diisopropyl urea.
abstract: The present paper explores the complexation ability of methacrylic acid which is one of the most abundant functional monomer for the preparation of molecularly imprinted polymers. Host-guest interactions and the mechanism of complex formation between methacrylic acid and potentially genotoxic 1,3-diisopropylurea were investigated in the pre-polymerization solution featuring both experimental (NMR, IR) and in silico density functional theory (DFT) tools. The continuous variation method revealed the presence of higher-order complexes and the appearance of self-association which were both taken into account during the determination of the association constants. The quantum chemical calculations - performed at B3LYP 6-311++G(d,p) level with basis set superposition error (BSSE) corrections - are in agreement with the experimental observations, reaffirming the association constants and justifying the validity of computational investigation of such systems. Furthermore, natural bond orbital analysis was carried out to appraise the binding properties of the complexes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Szent Géllert tér 4, Budapest 1111, Hungary; Spectroscopic Research Department, Gedeon Richter Plc., Gyömrői út 19-21, Budapest 1103, Hungary.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pogány
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering & Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, The Mill, Sackville Street, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mayamin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Razali
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering & Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, The Mill, Sackville Street, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: gyorgy.szekely@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Gyorgy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Szekely
keywords: Binding characterisation; DFT; Host-guest chemistry; Molecular recognition; NMR titration