ABSTRACT
There is a noticeable increase in the use of biopolymers and synthetic polymers in medicine and pharmaceutical analysis as drug delivery systems, therapeutic systems, macromolecular prodrugs, as biomimetic receptors, and as recognition element and as stationary phase in chromatographic and chiral separations [1-3]. Because of their appealing extraction capacity, electrochemical properties, large modiiable surfaces and multiple active sites, it is easily understandable the focus toward developing sensing devices based on nanostructured polymeric preconcentration and recognition elements. A highly selective interface is essential in creating electrochemical sensors capable of detecting the target molecule in a complex matrix, even in the presence of closerelated structural analogues of the analyte. Generally, the interface
is represented by synthetic chemical compounds able to interact by nonselective chemical bonds with the analyte of interest but also with chemical compounds that possess same chemical functionalities as the analyte. An alternative increasingly employed in electrochemistry is represented by a class of materials whose selectivity can be directed in the fabrication process toward the target molecule. These materials, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), although they were exploited in electrochemistry for quite some time, only recently have begun to be used as the recognition element in the electrochemical sensors for the chiral discrimination of racemic compounds.
