Chemosensory Performance of Molecularly Imprinted Fluorescent Conjugated Polymer Materials

Abstract

Fluorescent conjugated polymers are an attractive basis for the design of low detection limit sensing devices owing to their intrinsic signal amplification capability. A simple and universal method to rationally control or fine-tune the chemodetection selectivity of conjugated polymer materials toward a desired analytical target would further benefit their applications. In a quest of such a method we investigated a general approach to cross-linked molecularly imprinted fluorescent conjugated polymer (MICP) materials that possess an intrinsic capability for signal transduction and have potential to enhance selectivity and sensitivity of sensor devices based on conjugated polymers. To study these capabilities, we prepared an MICP material for the detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and related nitroaromatic compounds. We found the imprinting effect in this material to be based on analyte shape/size recognition being substantial and generally overcoming other competing thermodynamically determined trends. The described molecularly imprinted fluorescent conjugated polymers show remarkable air stability and photostability, high fluorescence quantum yield, and reversible analyte binding and therefore are advantageous for sensing applications due to the ability to "preprogram" their detection selectivity through a choice of an imprinted template.

Composite of CdTe quantum dots and molecularly imprinted polymer as a sensing material for cytochrome c

“…Furthermore, in contrast to the natural antibody, the substantial advantages of artificial counterparts are their mechanical and chemical robustness and their production by self-assembling processes without time-consuming and complex synthesis. Combining the high selectivity of molecular imprinting and the fluorescent properties of QDs could develop new method for target analyte recognition (Haupt et al, 1998;Carlson et al, 2006;Turkewitsch et al, 1998;Li et al, 2007Li et al, , 2010Tu et al, 2008). In such nanoparticles-based sensing systems, binding a target molecule is translated into a sensor signal and fluorescence intensity changes when a target 0956-5663/$ -see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.…”

Electrochemical Determination of Tetracycline Using Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Modified Carbon Nanotube‐Gold Nanoparticles Electrode

“…As reported by Li et al [18], for example, the use of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) improved the selectivity of the fluorescent determination of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene. Due to the low levels of environmental pollutants in real samples, a sensitive method is necessary for routine analysis of these pollutants.…”

Carbon Nanotubes – Imprinted Polymers: Hybrid Materials for Analytical Applications

“…During the past ten years, the literatures on the development of MIP-based sensors, in particularly electrochemical (Riskin et al, 2008;) and optical (McDonagh et al, 2008;BasabeDesmonts et al, 2007;Li J. et al, 2007a;Feng et al, 2008) sensors, have been dramatically growing (Nilsson et al, 2007;Ramanavicius et al, 2006). It was found that the manufacture of composites consisting of molecularly imprinted conducting polymers results in obtaining materials that exhibit both predetermined selective molecular recognition and electrical conductivity (Deore et al, 2000).…”