(375d) Stress Sensor Synthesis Using Electropolymerized Molecularly Imprinted Polymers

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are synthetic receptors that mimic the "lock and key" mechanism in the natural biological antigen-antibody system. They are highly attractive as artificial receptors with tailored biomolecular recognition to construct biosensors. Electropolymerization is a quick and easy method to directly synthesize MIP sensing elements in-situ on the working electrode, enabling ultralow-cost and easy-to-manufacture electrochemical biosensors. Finding an optimal design space and relationship between synthesis parameters and sensitivity is one of the most challenging aspects of MIP fabrication. e -MIPs’ development and optimization can be facilitated through the use of machine learning to quickly identify this design space and improve performance. For cortisol detection, pyrrole is selected as the functional monomer. Cortisol-imprinted-polypyrrole-based sensors are fabricated with 72 sets of synthesis parameters with replicates for the data-driven analysis, including pyrrole concentration, cortisol concentration, number of electropolymerization cyclic-voltammetry (CV) cycles, electropolymerization CV scan rate, and number overoxidation cycles for template elution. MIP sensing performances are measured using a 12-channel potentiostat, which improves experimental efficiency and ensures sensor reproducibility and data quality. Machine learning optimization can also identify coupled parameters more efficiently than a traditional design of experiments. These linkages assist in the development of enhanced sensors for cortisol and the method can be expanded and applied to other MIP sensor models.