Novel strategy to design magnetic, molecular imprinted polymers with well-controlled structure for the application in optical sensors

Abstract

The incorporation of magnetic properties allows the in situ formation of sensor spots by magnetic separation and, consequently, optical readout from the outside. Several magnetic MIPs have been synthesized and characterized, highlighting that both the amount and distribution of magnetite are essential for producing a good material. This work also shows that well-organized structures must be obtained for designing magnetic MIP which can be used as optical sensors phases. Thus, in this work we propose a novel strategy to design well-organized, highly magnetic MIP particles to be used as optical sensing phases. The obtained magnetic MIP is the first one that has been used for optical sensing. It shows highly magnetic properties with high sensitivity (detection limit of 20 ngmL-1), good imprinting effect (MIP/NIP ratio of 2.4), and high selectivity. This strategy may be further extended for implementing optical sensing phases in portable devices that can control a broad variety of analytes in different matrices (water, organic solvent, etc.) and may be used to improve sensitivity in other magnetic optical sensors.