Ion and molecule sensors using molecular recognition in luminescent, conductive polymers. FY 1997 year-end progress report

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this project is to use molecular recognition strategies to develop sensor technology based on luminescent, conductive polymers that contain sites for binding specific molecules or ions in the presence of related molecules or ions. Selective binding of a particular molecule or ion of interest to these polymers will result in a large change in their luminescence and/or conductivity, which can be used to both qualitatively and quantitatively sense the presence of the bound molecules or ions. The main thrusts and accomplishments in the first year of this project involve developing polymer syntheses that yield conjugated polymers to which a wide variety of ligands for metal ion binding can be readily incorporated. Target ProblemResearch problems that will be addressed by this project include: 1) designing molecular recognition sites that are highly selective for the ions and/or molecules of interest in the presence of a large background of other chemical species, 2) finding ways to incorporate many different selective groups into a single polymer, 3) fabricating polymer films, strips, sheets, and coatings that can be applied to other materials, such as fiber optics and surfaces, 4) developing interfaces between the polymers and substrates that can be used to produce prototype arrays of many sensor elements for rapid multi-contaminant detection and quantitation, and 5) developing multiplexed data collection techniques to rapidly process the data obtained from many polymer sensors into a chemical profile of a waste stream or waste site in real time.