Molecularly imprinted polymers and optical sensing applications

The development of optical sensing approaches for analytes of biological, i ndustrial, or environmental concern has reached an enormous significance. D ifferent natural systems such as enzymes or antibodies have been employed i n the development of these kind of sensors, but they often lack of stabilit y. Molecular imprinting has become a universal tool for preparation of arti ficial and robust recognition materials mimicking natural systems. Molecula r imprinting polymers (MIPs) are easily obtained by copolymerization of sui table functional monomers and crosslinkers in the presence of the target mo lecule. These polymers exhibit a tremendous thermal, chemical, and mechanic al stability besides having selectivity similar to that of natural systems. Here we report an overview of molecular imprinting technique focussed to i ts sensing applications, emphasizing those systems based on an optical tran sduction.