The molecular reaction vessels for a transesterification process created by molecular imprinting technique

A polymeric catalyst was synthesized by co‐polymerizing 4(5)‐vinylimidazole and itaconic acid with trimethylpropanol trimethacrylate micro spheres. The catalyst obtained catalysed the transesterification process between p ‐nitrophenyl acetate and hexanol with maximal initial velocity(ν max ) of 4.73 ± 0.47 μ M  min −1  mg −1 , and turnover rate ( k cat ) of 8.67 min −1 . Using p ‐nitrophenyl acetate as template, molecular imprinting process enhanced the ν max of the polymeric catalyst 3‐fold. Each imprinted site can be considered as a single molecular reaction vessel, and achieved a k cat of 169 min −1 towards the conversion of p ‐nitrophenyl acetate in hexanol. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.