CHROMATOGRAPHY, Vol. 29 (2008), No. 1, pp. -9

In analyses of chemicals, selective separation is strongly desired for high accuracy and sensitivity. In order to separate selectively targeting compounds from complex matrices, molecular imprinting (MI) technique is believed to be one of the most promising techniques. The polymer-based materials prepared by MI have the selective recognition ability for targeting compounds like as “lock-and-key model”. However, the technique is hard to apply for toxic compounds and rare compounds because the targeting compounds are required directly for the template molecules in the process of preparation of the molecularly imprinted materials. Therefore, we developed alternative technique by the name of Fragment Imprinting Technique (FIT) in which the targeting compounds are not necessary. In FIT, the pseudo-template molecules are utilized, and the imprinted materials have selective recognition ability for a part of characteristic chemical structure on the targeting compounds. Additionally, FIT was applied for the selective separation of the environmental pollutants and natural toxins.