Molecularly imprinted polymer integrated plasmonic nanosensor for cocaine detection.

A molecularly imprinted polymeric nanofilm was prepared for cocaine detection and applied to plasmonic nanosensor for real-time kinetic, selectivity and reusability analyses. The sensing polymeric surface was fabricated by synthesizing a selective and specific nanofilm on the gold plasmonic nanosensor surface. After characterization experiments with atomic force microscopy, ellipsometer, and contact angle measurements, the kinetic studies of cocaine detection in aqueous solutions in a wide concentration range between 0.2-100 μg/mL were applied to plasmonic nanosensor system at 24 °C with a low limit of detection (0.1 μg/L) and quantification values (0.3 μg/L) and the results showed that this molecularly imprinted polymeric nanofilm integrated plasmonic nanosensor is providing a model for the fastest, most accurate and most precise identification of the cocaine molecule which constitutes a large part of the workload of forensic laboratories.