Surface imprinting in layer-by-layer nanostructured films

In this Full Paper, we develop a novel approach for the generation of stable molecularly imprinted sites in polymeric films by combining the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique and photochemical crosslinking of the layered structure. After photo-crosslinking, the imprinted films show high reproducibility and rapid loading and unloading of imprinted sites by the template molecules. Moreover, the competitive adsorption of template molecules and redox labels into the imprinted film using electrochemical methods indicates that the imprinted film has higher affinity for template molecules. We believe this approach may have some advantages over traditional ways of preparing imprinted sites in polymer matrices and it may open a new avenue for the functionalization of LbL films.