An investigation of 9-ethyladenine (9-EA) imprinted polymers has provided insight into the origins of binding and recognition by imprinted polymers. Porogens and polymerization temperature are important variables during the polymerization. Factors that influence rebinding of the 9-EA imprinted polymer include pH and utilization of the porogen as mobile phase. Finally, quantitative structure-binding relationship studies elicited the substructures of 9-EA primarily responsible for creating the binding sites within the polymers.