Molecular imprinting of boronate functionalized polyaniline for enzyme-free selective detection of saccharides and hydroxy acids

The majority of reagentless affinity sensors suffer from poor selectivity because specific binding and non-specific interactions generate responses in the same direction, commonly causing resistance increase. We report on the advanced transducer, synthesized in course of molecular imprinting, which generates conductivity increase as a result of specific binding. Electropolymerization of 3-aminophenylboronic acid (3-APBA) known to yield conductive polyaniline only in the presence of F−, has been carried substituted the latter for hydroxy acids. The achieved synthesis of conductive polymer in course of fluoride-free 3-APBA electropolymerization indicates successful imprinting of hydroxy acids. Imprinting poly(3-APBA) provides as 10-15 times increased, as even decreased binding constants towards target analytes as compared to the non-imprinted polymer. This allows one to achieve the desired selectivity among polyols. Tuning binding properties of boronate functionalized polyaniline we've demonstrated the enzyme-free selective detection of saccharides and hydroxy acids via conductivity increase of the conductive polymer.