Carbon Nanotubes – Imprinted Polymers: Hybrid Materials for Analytical Applications

Molecular imprinting is a recent new and rapidly evolving technique which allows the creation of synthetic receptors (MIPs) consisting of highly cross-linked porous-rich polymers with recognition properties comparable to the biological systems related to the presence of specific recognition sites complementary in shape, size and functional groups to a target molecule. It is a facile concept, which involves the construction of sites of specific recognition, commonly within synthetic polymers. The template of choice is entrapped within a pre-polymerization complex, consisting of functional monomers with good functionality, which chemically interacts with the template. Polymerization in the presence of crosslinker serves to freeze these template-monomer interactions and subsequent removal of the template results in the formation of a molecularly imprinted polymer matrix. Due to the advantages of MIPs such as low cost, stability, and easy preparation compared with natural molecular recognition products (e.g. antibody), Molecular imprinting is a welldeveloped tool in the analytical field, mainly for separating and quantifying very different substances, including drugs and bio-active molecules contained in relatively complex matrices. Despite the application of MIPs as sensor matrices or separation materials, they suffer from basic limitations associated with the limited concentration of imprinted sites, and the bulk volume of the polymer matrices that requires long diffusion paths of the imprinted host molecules. These limitations lead to inefficient sensing or separation processes. MIP nanomaterials are proposed as a pain reliever for headache by improving the accessibility and the homogeneity of the binding sites. In particular, with high strength, the extremely large surface area and unique chemical properties, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could serve as the reinforcing element or core in fabricating core–shell structural MIPs.