IMPRINTING FOR THE ASSEMBLY OF ARTIFICIAL RECEPTORS ON A SILICA SURFACE

Molecular imprinting of a solid surface provides a means to introduce reactive functionalities with a defined geometry on the surface. A sil ica surface was imprinted with a tridentate metal complex, Ru[bipy-CH= NCH2CH2CH2Si(OEt)(3)](3). The molecular imprinting process leaves thre e amino groups per Ru-II complex. The imprinted silica was reacted wit h various aldehydes to assemble artificial receptor sites on the surfa ce. A metal binding site for Fe-II was constructed with a bipyridine-m odified aldehyde that was selectively adsorbed on the surface in the p resence of other two aldehydes and Fe-II.