Molecularly Imprinted Polymers based on Conductive Polymers: Useful Materials for Chemical Sensing

These last few decades, the demand for chemical detection methods and measurement techniques has been constantly increasing. This demand is driven by environmental, security and process control concerns and by the need for efficient and quick medical diagnostics. Classical methods based on sample collection and lab measurements are the most used measurement techniques. They are accurate and
reliable but they are expensive, not real time and cause statistics issues. Devices based on chemical sensors are a good solution as these systems can be very sensitive, low cost, small size, real time and easily integrated in common electronics to build portable systems. This paper presents chemical sensors based on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) built with conductive polymers as polymer matrix.
MIP is a polymer synthesized by incorporating a template molecule. Functional monomers form a complex around the template and are linked afterwards to form a polymer constituted of a series of 'cages' trapping the template. Afterwards, the template is removed, leaving cavities imprinted in the polymer matrix that allows the polymer to selectively recognize the target molecule. These elements are cheap, easy to synthesize and can be adapted to any kind of surface. When using conducting polymers for building MIP's, the adsorption of the template can modify their optical or electrical properties. We showed that it was possible to use these materials for building chemoresistive, potentiometric or optical fiber sensors for the detection of pollutants in air, glucose or molecules of medical interest with a good selectivity and sensitivity.