# Melamine-Based Molecularly Imprinted Monoliths Targeting Glyphosate in Aqueous Media: Synthesis and Binding Mechanism Elucidation

## TL;DR

This paper describes the creation of melamine-based materials that can selectively bind glyphosate in water, with insights into their binding mechanism.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel melamine-based molecularly imprinted monolith for glyphosate detection in aqueous environments.

## Key findings

- PMIDA and PBA templates created selective binding sites with imprinting factors of 2.5 and 1.7.
- PMIDA-imprinted polymer showed higher binding efficiency in the presence of sodium chloride.
- Hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions were identified as key binding mechanisms.

## Abstract

Cross-linked melamine imprinted monoliths targeting glyphosate
were synthesized using 4-phosphonobutanoic acid (PBA) and N-(phosphonomethyl)­iminodiacetic acid (PMIDA) as templates.
The binding capacities, evaluated in an aqueous medium, showed that
both PMIDA and PBA promoted selective binding sites with imprinting
factors of 2.5 and 1.7, respectively. Despite a relatively low imprinting
factor, the polymer imprinted with PMIDA showed a noticeably higher
binding efficiency in the presence of sodium chloride compared to
the nonimprinted reference, demonstrating an ability to selectively
target the desired analytes in real sample matrices. Spectroscopic
investigations using Fourier transform infrared and 1H
nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed the formation of
“memory pockets” for glyphosate molecules in the imprinted
melamine–formaldehyde scaffold promoted by simultaneous contributions
from (i) hydrogen bonding with N–H/O–H moieties and
(ii) electrostatic interaction toward the triazine ring.