Book Description

This volume contains the proceedings of two symposia held at the 2002 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Molecular imprinting (MI) technology has attracted much attention and enjoyed tremendous development over the past decade. MI technology enables the preparation of materials with host sites that recognize specific guest molecules, analogous to the "lock-and-key" paradigm of antibodies and enzymes. Advantages of molecularly imprinted materials include: a degree of specificity approaching that of antibodies but with much greater temporal and thermal stability; rapid development because precise molecular design and chemical synthesis are unnecessary; and wide applicability because materials may be imprinted with almost any shape-persistent analyte of interest. Papers from Symposium M, "Molecularly Imprinted Materials, focus primarily on the fabrication of functional materials and devices based on MI materials. Studies are presented not only by experts in MI, but more importantly, by materials scientists integrating molecular imprinting with cutting-edge techniques in microfabrication and nanotechnology.