Imprinted Nanospheres

The imprinted nanosphere is prepared by precipitation polymerization which is used for the recognition of desired species [58]. Imp-NPs were produced by dilution of pre-polymerization mixtures, while optimizing a number of parameters such as the 

Method Technique Nanomaterial Analyte Detection limit Ref. 

3-aminophenylboronic acid as the monomer. Other techniques used for the fabrication of Imp-NPs include the sol-gel process [68], bulk polymerization [69], covalent grafting [70] and electropolymerization [71] for achieving high selectivity and sensor response. 

---

Fig. 7. General scheme for the preparation of molecularly imprinted nanospheres and their use for molecular recognition. Template molecules induce the formation of binding sites during the miniemulsion polymerization. The templates are extracted from the highly crosslinked particles and are molecularly recognized by the nanospheres selective binding sites...

M. Esfandyari-Manesh, M. Javanbakht, F. Atyabi, A. Mohammadi, S. Mohammadi, B. Akbari-Adergani, and R. Dinarvand, Dipyridamole recognition and controlled release by uniformly sized molecularly imprinted nanospheres. Mater. Sci. Eng. C, 31, 1692-1699, 2011. 

Carbamazepine functional monomer, MAA, thick walled glass tube containing CBZ dissolved in porogen were used. The crosslinker, Trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate, and initiator, azobisisobutyronitrile, were also used. 20% of loaded CBZ was released from the imprinted nanospheres within the initial 6 h, while another 80% of CBZ was released in the following 9 days. [232]... 

Toth E, Hehn L, Merbach AE (2002) Relaxivity of MRI Contrast Agents. 221 61-101 Tovar GEM, Krauter I, Gruber C (2003) Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanospheres as Fully Affinity Receptors. 227 125-144... 

Li Z, Ding J, Day M, Tao Y. Molecularly imprinted polymeric nanospheres by diblock copolymer self-assembly. Macromolecules 2006 39 2629-2636. 

Keywords Membranes Microgels Microparticles Microspheres Molecular imprinting Monoliths Nanogels Nanoparticles Nanospheres... 

Another nice example of nanostructuring an MIP layer is the work published by Wu et al. [138, 139] who developed a label-free optical sensor based on molecularly imprinted photonic polymers. Photonic crystals were prepared by self-assembly of silica nanospheres. The space between the spheres was then filled with MIP precursor solution. After polymerization, the silica was dissolved, leaving an MIP in the form of a 3D-ordered interconnected macroporous inverse polymer opal (Fig. 15). The authors were able to detect traces of the herbicide atrazine at low concentrations in aqueous solution [139]. Analyte adsorption into the binding sites resulted in a change in Bragg diffraction of the polymer characterized by a color modification (Fig. 15). 

The study of QDs and MIPs in the development of the detection scheme for pyrethroids has very recently been reported [72]. Pyrethroids are pesticides commonly used against insects being widely used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The QDs were embedded in silica nanospheres having lambda-cahalothrin imprinted sites on their surfaces. As also presented in the previous example, the principle of recognition was based on a decrease of fluorescence with an increase of analyte concentration. The lambda-cahalothrin imprinted... 

Ko DY, Lee HJ, Jeong B. Surface-imprinted, thermosensitive, core-shell nanosphere for molecular recognition. Macromolecular Rapid Communications 2006, 27, 1367-1372. 

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Nanospheres as Fully Synthetic Affinity Receptors... 

---