The mass transfer kinetics of the L- and D-Fmoc-Tryptophan (Fmoc-Trp) enantiomers on Fmoc-L-Trp imprinted polymer (MlP) and on its reference polymer (NIP), were measured using their elution peak profiles and the breakthrough curves recorded in frontal analysis for the determination of their equilibrium isotherms, at temperatures of 40, 50, 60, and 70 degrees C. At all temperatures, the isotherm data of the Fmoc-Trp enantiomers on the MIP were best accounted for by the Tri-Langmuir isotherm model, while the isotherm data of Fmoc-Trp on the NIP were best accounted for by the Bi-Langmuir isotherm model. The profiles of the elution bands of various amounts of each enantiomer were acquired in the concentration range from 0.1 to 40 mM. These experimental profiles were compared with those calculated using the best values estimated for the isotherm parameters and the lumped pore diffusion model (POR), which made possible to calculate the intraparticle diffusion coefficients for each system. The results show that surface diffusion contributes predominantly to the overall mass transfer kinetics on both the MIP and the NIP, compared to external mass transfer and pore diffusion. The surface diffusion coefficients (D-s) of Fmoc-L-Trp on the NIP does not depend on the amount bound (q) while the values of Ds for the two Fmoc-Trp enantiomers on the MIP increase with increasing q at all temperatures. These positive dependencies of D-s on q for Fmoc-Trp on the MIP were fairly well modeled by indirectly incorporating surface heterogeneity into the surface diffusion coefficient. The results obtained show that the mass transfer kinetics of the enantiomers on the imprinted polymers depend strongly on the surface heterogeneity. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.