ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of specific studies related to the development of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) bio- and chemosensors based on the exploitation of molecular imprinting with two different approaches for SPR signal enhancement. The first study applies imprinted polymers that undergo a swelling process upon binding of the substrates, resulting in a substantial change in the refractive index of the polymer-sensing interface. This enables the improved application of SPR spectroscopy to follow the association of substrates to the imprinted polymers. As a result, the possibility to detect nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide cofactors using the imprinted polymer films by means of SPR spectroscopy was demonstrated. Additionally, these functionalized membranes have been used to analyze biocatalytic transformations involving Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent enzyme lactate dehydrogenase. The second study is based on the application of molecularly imprinted composite polymer-gold nanoparticle matrix for the detection of ultralow concentrations of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, nitroglycerin, and ethylene glycol dinitrate explosives.
