Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized using some simple compounds of small size as templates. This paper focuses on studying the relationship between the effect of molecular imprinting and the structural characteristics of the molecules, by summarizing the chromatographic data of 43 compounds on their corresponding MIPs. According to the definition of immunogenicity in immunology, a new term "imprintogenicity" is proposed, which is used to describe the capability of a molecule in imprinting. The imprinting property of a molecule is termed as imprintogenicity. Accordingly, a molecule which owns imprintogenicity is called imprintogen. An imprintogen with high imprintogenicity wiR produce molecularly imprinted polymer with high binding constant and high selectivity to the template or imprintogen. The chemical basis of being an imprintogen with high imprintogenicity is studied. The conclusions drawn in this paper will be helpful to understand the mechanism of molecular recognition of MIP. Furthermore, it wiU be of instructive significance to predict the selectivity of MIPs according to the properties of templates.

Key words: molecular imprinting, TEMPLATE AGENT