Nanometric thin polymeric films based on molecularly imprinted technology: towards electrochemical sensing applications

A new approach for assembling selective electrodes based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) is presented. The approach is based on the radical polymerization of a mixture of methacrylic acid (MAA) and ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) in the presence of an initiator, benzoyl peroxide (BPO) and an activator, N,N′-dimethyl-p-toluidine (DMpT) at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. To form nanometric thin polymeric films the polymerization solution was spin-coated in the course of polymerization. The different physical and chemical parameters that affected the properties of the films, such as the spinning rate and the EGDMA:MAA ratio, were studied and optimized. A variety of techniques, e.g., rheoscopy, SEM, AFM, profilometry and electrochemistry, were used to characterize the films and the polymerization process. By optimizing the conditions very thin and reproducible films could be prepared and imprinted. The electrochemical behavior of the films showed that they were permeable to water-soluble electroactive species providing that either polyethylene glycol or template species were added to the polymerization mixture. Finally, we demonstrated that films imprinted with ferrocenylmethyl alcohol (Fc-MeOH) successfully extracted the imprinted species after their removal from MIPs.