We use soft lithography to pattern molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) at the nanoscale. Patterning occurs via a micro transfer molding process associated with an edge effect. We show using fluorescence microscopy that the nanopatterned synthetic receptors specifically recognize and bind a model target, dansyl-L-phenylalanine. We also demonstrate using AFM a specific swelling of the MIP pattern in the presence of the analyte. We believe that this opens new opportunities for the application of MIPs in microsensors and microbiochips, for example in environmental analysis and biomedical diagnostics.

Incorporating functional molecules into sensor devices is an emerging area in molecular electronics that aims at exploiting the sensitivity of different molecules to their environment and turning it into an electrical signal. Among the emergent and integrated sensors, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are promising for their extreme sensitivity to mechanical events. However, to bring new functions to these devices, the functionalization of their surface with molecules is required. Herein, we present original electronic devices made of an organic microelectromechanical resonator functionalized with switchable magnetic molecules. The change of their mechanical properties and geometry induced by the switching of their magnetic state at a molecular level alters the device’s dynamical behavior, resulting in a change of the resonance frequency. We demonstrate that these devices can be operated to sense light or thermal excitation. Moreover, thanks to the collective interaction of the switchable molecules, the device behaves as a non-volatile memory. Our results open up broad prospects of new flexible photo- and thermo-active hybrid devices for molecule-based data storage and sensors.

We use photolithography to pattern molecularly imprinted polymers for the wafer-scale production of biochips. We are able to produce multiplexed, spatially resolved micrometer-sized features of functional materials capable of molecular recognition. Using a fluorescent probe, dansyl-L-Phe, we show specific analyte binding to MIP patterns imprinted with boc-L-Phe, by fluorescence microscopy. Advantages of this technique are the control of shape and size of the patterns with a resolution of 1.5 µm, and the possibility of depositing a number of different MIPs on the same chip (parallelization). Multiplexing chips on the same substrate paves the road to their mass-production. Because of the simplicity of the method and the low cost of chip fabrication, we believe that mass production of portable microbiochips based on stable MIPs is now in close reach. Their combination with integrated transducers fabricated by micromachining techniques appears also possible.

Polymer Micro ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) have the potential to constitute a powerful alternative to silicon-based MEMS devices for sensing applications. Although the use of commercial photoresists as structural material in polymer MEMS has been widely reported, the integration of functional polymer materials as electromechanical transducers has not yet received the same amount of interest. In this context, we report on the design and fabrication of different electromechanical schemes based on polymeric materials ensuring different transduction functions. Piezoresistive transduction made of carbon nanotube-based nanocomposites with a gauge factor of 200 was embedded within U-shaped polymeric cantilevers operating either in static or dynamic modes. Flexible resonators with integrated piezoelectric transduction were also realized and used as efficient viscosity sensors. Finally, piezoelectric-based organic field effect transistor (OFET) electromechanical transduction exhibiting a record sensitivity of over 600 was integrated into polymer cantilevers and used as highly sensitive strain and humidity sensors. Such advances in integrated electromechanical transduction schemes should favor the development of novel all-polymer MEMS devices for flexible and wearable applications in the future.