Molecular Imprinting: Materials Nanoarchitectonics with Molecular Information

Combining nanotechnology with other science disciplines is necessary to produce various materials with nanoscale structural and functional information, which is nanoarchitectonics, a novel paradigm to create useful materials. One of the basic ideas in nanoarchitectonics is use of molecular-level information to structurally design functional materials. This strategy is indeed used in some existing science fields and technical realms. For example, molecular imprinting techniques provide functional materials possessing molecular information inside fabricated materials. Revisiting this idea with the nanoarchitectonics concept would have great meaning toward unification of individual research disciplines into one key approach. In this review, we survey fundamentals and recent trends in molecular imprinting in consideration of nanoarchitectonics. Here, aspects and examples of molecular imprinting are surveyed from fundamentals to advanced applications: (i) fundamental preparation of molecular imprinting polymers in the form of nanoparticles, nanofibers, thin films, and monolayers; (ii) surface coverage, post-modification, and introduction of new functional groups; (iii) imprinted materials with controllable guest binding by external stimuli such as photo-responsive, temperature-sensitive, pH-sensitive, solvent-dependent, and multistimuli responsive materials; (iv) imprinting using proteins as template and protein stamping; (v) use of cyclodextrins as functional monomers; (vi) advanced functions including highly sensitive and selective sensors combined with DNA aptamers and enzymatic reactions, post-imprinting for sophisticated sensors, and applications to drug delivery systems.