ABSTRACT
The concept of organizing molecular components around a template
in order to develop a recognition capability originated in the 1930s
with the “instructive” theory of antibody formation developed by
Mudd [1] and Pauling [3]. Although this has been proved not to be
the mechanism for biological antibody formation, it was extremely
‹ϐŽ—‡–‹ƒŽ ‘‡–Š‡Ž‡••Ǥ Š‡ –‡’Žƒ–‡ …‘…‡’– ™ƒ• ƒ†ƒ’–‡† –‘ Dz–ƒ‹Ž‘” ƒ†‡dz •’‡…‹ϐ‹… ƒ†•‘”„‡–•ǡ ƒ† –‘ ‹’”‹–‹‰ •›–Š‡•‹• ‹ 1950-1970 by Scatchard [2,3] and Rockow [4], respectively. From
ͳͻͲ–‘ͳͻͺͲǡ—Žơet al., Shea and Thompson, and Mosbach et al. worked separately on enzyme-analogue polymers [5], functionalized
organic polymers [6], and substrate-selective polymers [7]. This
foundational work established the utility of molecularly imprinted
’‘Ž›‡”•ȋ•ȌǡƒŽ•‘…ƒŽŽ‡†ƒ”–‹ϐ‹…‹ƒŽ”‡…‡’–‘”•ǡ ˆ‘”„‹‘•‡’ƒ”ƒ–‹‘Ǥ Bioseparation utilizes the basic capability of molecularly imprinted
polymers to adsorb target molecules; therefore, the templates used
for imprinting are formed from either distinctive parts of or the
entire target molecule. Bulk polymerization is employed for these
applications, and the polymeric particles produced are then packed
‹ƒ…‘Ž—ˆ‘”…Š”‘ƒ–‘‰”ƒ’Š›„›ƒˆϐ‹‹–›„‹†‹‰Ǥ Electrochemical sensing is a powerful analytical technique
with its roots in voltammetry, studied by Jaroslav Heyrovsky in the
1920s; he later went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1959 with his
polarographic method [8]. During the 1980s, the sensing capabilities
of molecularly imprinted polymers in combination with electrodes
ƒ† ‡Ž‡…–”‘…Š‡‹…ƒŽ ‡ƒ•—”‡‡–• ™‡”‡ ϐ‹”•– †‡‘•–”ƒ–‡† [9]. Haupt and Mosbach have extensively reviewed the usage of
molecularly imprinted polymers in biomimetic sensors [10]. The
basic concepts of molecularly imprinted polymers, including the
principles of their formation, physical forms, targets, applications,
and related techniques were discussed. In addition, general
considerations, the detection principles, signals from analyte and
polymer, and competitive measurement of transducers were also
described. Generally, four types of detection methods exist: optical,
thermal, electrochemical and gravimetric. Electrochemical detection
is especially appealing because of the simple apparatus required.
