The interactions between the template molecule paclitaxel (PTX) and seven functional monomers containing methacrylic acid (MA), acrolein (AC), 4-vinylbenzoic acid (4VA), acrylonitrile (AN), 2-vinylpyridine (2VP), 2,6-bisacrylamide pyridine (BAP) and methyl methacrylate (MM) were systematically investigated adopting the density functional theory (DFT) method. Moreover, the different binding sites on PTX and solvents embracing chloroform, acetone, ethanol, methanol, and acetonitrile were considered. The calculated solvent energies (ΔEsolvent) and template-monomer binding energies (ΔEb) suggest that the chloroform is the most suitable solvent for the molecular imprinting reaction of PTX among the studied five solvents. Furthermore, from the obtained ΔEb, we can find that the monomer 4VA combining with PTX in the form of the specific intermolecular hydrogen bonds would present the most stable structure among the investigated monomers. These results can provide valuable theoretical guidance for the efficient extraction of PTX by the molecular imprinting technique in experiments. Graphical abstracts.
Keywords: Binding sites; Density functional theory; Molecular imprinted polymer; Paclitaxel; Solvent effects.