Preparation of fluorescent molecularly imprinted polymer micropowder for odorant visualization

Odorant visualization based on luorescence imaging has been developed as a novel technique to obtain spatiotemporal information on odors in an environment. In order to increase the selectivity and reversibility of sensing films, fluorescent-dyed micropowders with molecular imprinting ability were proposed for the odorant visualization. The micropowders were prepared by bulk polymerization in the presence of template and luorescence probe molecules. The luorescence emission character and the molecular imprinting effect of the prepared micropowders were investigated by luorescence microscope observations and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) measurements, respectively. The dyed molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) micropowders were coated on glass substrates and used as the sensing ilm for the selective visualization of odorant lows. The molecular imprinting effect was conirmed by the change in the ratio of the luorescence of the MIP ilm to the non-imprinted polymer (NIP) ilm. In addition, a higher ratio was demonstrated by the MIP ilm on the target odorant than the non-target odorant, which veriied the selective visualization of the prepared micropowder. The ilm also showed advantage in reversible response on various odorants; therefore the luorescent MIP micropowder can be used repeatedly in the real time odorant visualizaiton.