Development of a Versatile Strategy for Inkjet-Printed Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Microarrays

Abstract

Biochips are composed of arrays of micropatterns enabling the optical detection of target analytes. Inkjet printing, complementary to commercially available micro- and nanospotters, is a contactless and versatile micropatterning method. Surprisingly, the inkjet printing of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), also known as biomimetic synthetic antibodies, has not been demonstrated as yet. In this work, core–shell structures are proposed through the combination of inkjet printing of the core (top-down approach) and controlled radical polymerization (CRP) to decorate the core with a thin film of MIP (bottom-up approach). The resulting biochips show quantitative, specific, and selective detection of antibiotic drug enrofloxacin by means of fluorescence analysis.