Characterization of functional states in nicotine‐ and cotinine‐imprinted poly(4‐vinylphenol) films by nanoindentation

Abstract

Thin, imprinted poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP) films were produced by spin coating using nicotine or its metabolite, cotinine, as template molecules. The template molecules were extracted from these films and later reloaded (or cross-loaded) from solution. Depth sensing nanoindentation was applied to measure the nanomechanical properties of the imprinted polymer films. Changes in the nanomechanical properties were correlated to the functional state of the imprinted polymer, allowing identification of the films in their ''as produced'' state, ''template removed state or ''reloaded'' state. In addition, the nanomechanical properties were capable of identifying which of the two template molecules were inserted in to a film. Reinsertion of a template molecule into a ''template removed'' film was found to increase the nanohardness over the values recorded for the ''as produced'' film. This behavior was discussed in terms of the hydrogen bonding characteristics of the materials (through density functional calculations) and the physical properties of poly(4-vinylphenol) coatings.

Effect of the host polymer on the nanomechanical and morphological properties of templated polymer films

“…The nanohardness results for 5 wt % cotinine containing films exhibited the same trend of extremely low values. 13 These results implied that significant chemical interactions between template and polymer host were operative in the P4VP films. The corresponding curves in Figure 4 clearly show a plateau over a large region of the penetration depth.…”

“…The result is displayed in Figure 4(a). 13 These results implied that significant chemical interactions between template and polymer host were operative in the P4VP films.…”

“…We have previously reported [13][14][15] on the use of depth sensing nanoindentation [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] to study the nanomechanical properties of MIP films. In those studies, the nanohardness was dependent upon the functional state of the MIP.…”

Thermochemical study of amino acid imprinted polymer films

“…We have demonstrated that attenuated total reflection FTIR spectroscopy is a useful tool to detect polymer host–template interaction and we can follow the extraction and reinsertion of the target molecule into the film using this technique (Richter and BelBruno, ). However, other techniques, especially thermal methods of analysis, provide the potential for direct observation of this polymer host–template interaction.…”

Equilibrium and kinetic isotherms and parameters for molecularly imprinted with sclareol poly(acrylonitrile‐co‐acrylic acid) matrix

“…And all this due to the fact that MIPs are extremely selective, robust, and versatile polymeric materials, with an adjustable design for almost any desired target molecule, design inspired by nature and synthetically reproduced through biomimetics [7][8][9][10][11][12]. What defines MIPs is the synthesis step when the template (the target molecule) interacts in solution with one or more functional monomers or (co)polymers by covalent or noncovalent bonds in the preimprinting step, after that these aggregates being "cemented" by polymerization or phase inversion [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. After the imprinting step and structure stabilization, the template is removed from the polymer matrix, thus leaving molecular cavities behind, with specific electronic memory towards the template molecules [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”