Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
is also investigated, and the data show that there is considerable loss of
imprinting ei ciency. In terms of substrate selectivity, a number of experi-
ments have been performed using 5-Cl-benzisoxazole as substrate ana-
logue, as well as 5-nitro-indole as template analogue for the preparation of
a dif erent set of nanogels. All the kinetic data demonstrate that the chemi-
cal structure of the template is key to the molecular recognition properties
of the imprinted nanogels that are closely tailored and able to dif erentiate
among small structural changes.
11.3.5
Nano Imprint Lithography
Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) can generate well dei ned nanostruc-
tures with high ei ciency and at very low cost. Molecular imprinting is a
“bottom-up” technique creating a polymer layer exhibiting structures with
a molecular selectivity [93]. Such polymer structures may be employed as
molecular recognition sites for sensing applications. Herein, the authors
combine NIL with MIP and they are able to obtain micro- and nanopat-
terns of polymer with features down to 100 nm that show high molecular
selectivity.
11.4
Conclusions & Future Outlook
h e current status, challenges, and highlighted applications of MIPs have
been described in this topic chapter. Major work has been performed to
resolve the problems associated with the development of MIPs during last
few years. Owing to their high selectivity, high sensitivity, low cost, and ease
of preparation, MIPs have been extensively utilized as chromatographic
media, sensors, and artii cial antibodies to detect various compounds in
environmental, bioanalytical, pharmaceutical and food samples. Although
remarkable achievements have been attained in molecular imprinting
at er the combination of nanotechnology with it, still there are substan-
tial development challenges and opportunities are required. Herein, we
try to summarize some important exploration initiatives which are still
required and that are as follows: (1) to explain the molecular imprinting
and recognition mechanism at the molecular level with the aid of advanced
equipment and computational chemistry; (2) to transfer the imprinting
process from organic phase to aqueous phase, reaching the level of natu-
ral molecular recognition; (3) to design and synthesize new monomers in
order to imprint those molecules without functional groups, broadening
the application i eld of MIP; (4) to exploit new polymerization methods
