A highly sensitive surface acoustic wave sensor modified with molecularly imprinted hydrophilic PVDF for the selective amino acid detection

Abstract

Molecularly imprinted templates for L-Tryptophan sensor using hydrophilic poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) was fabricated through in-situ polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) within PVDF matrix. The work proposes a novel strategy for the integration of antifouling layer modification for water treatment technique into molecular imprinting polymer for surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor fabrication and demonstrates their effective utilization in direct biological applications. The L-Tryptophan templates were carefully prepared on the delay line area of a SAW device prepared through photolithographic method internally. The imprinted template was qualitatively analysed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to understand the bond formation and distribution of imprinted textures on the receptor surface. Quantitative measurements as the L-Tryptophan receptor was conducted through SAW analysis within range of concentration 0.5–150 ng/ml and the sensor responded linearly with the varying concentration. The limit of detection and limit of quantification calculated to be 0.2 and 0.6 ng/ml, respectively. The mechanism of adsorption was further studied using Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson adsorption isotherm. The MIP modified SAW sensor had high selectivity in the presence of structural analogues such as D- tryptophan, ascorbic acid, leucine and tyrosine. The hydrophilic PVDF coated MIP-SAW sensor exhibited relatively high imprinting factor towards L-tryptophan of about 9.34.