Molecular Imprinted Polymer Based Thermo-Sensitive Electrochemical Sensor for Theophylline Recognition

Abstract

A novel molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) based thermo-sensitive electrochemical sensor was fabricated by an electropolymerization method using N-isopropylacryamide and theophylline as the monomer and the template molecule, respectively. The [Fe(CN)₆]³⁻/[Fe(CN)₆]⁴⁻ was used as an electrochemical probe to investigate the electrochemical behavior of the prepared sensor. The influence factors including electropolymerization cycles, the utilization of cross-linkers, and the extraction solution were investigated in detail. The sensor exhibited excellent thermo-sensitive behavior to environmental temperature stimuli and displayed a good recognition capacity for template molecules from its analogues. This approach may allow the application of this type of intelligent electrochemical sensor for stimulus-responsive recognition of template molecules.

Keywords:

• Electrochemical sensor
• Molecularly imprinted polymer
• Molecularly recognition
• Thermo-sensitive property

Acknowledgments

We greatly appreciate the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Young Program (21005002), the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation for Young Program (11040606Q35), and the Anhui University Provincial Natural Science Foundation Key program (KJ2010A138).