Molecular Imprints in Nanostructured Polymer Surfaces - A New Generation of Biomimetic Materials for Chemical Sensors

We describe the preparation of nanostructured molecularly-imprinted surfaces using nanomolding on porous alumina. In molecular imprinting functional and cross-linking monomers are copolymerized in the presence of a molecular template, resulting in synthetic receptor materials. The drug propranolol and the dye fluorescein were used as the molecular imprinting templates. Binding studies with imprinted and non-imprinted surfaces revealed specific recognition of the templates and thus the existence of selective binding sites. In addition, the surface properties of the films were studied by water contact angle measurements. It was found that, depending on the monomers used, certain nanostructures induced great changes in the wetting properties of the surface.