Development of multichannel quartz crystal microbalances for MIP-based biosensing

Molecularly imprinted polymers (mips) offer a huge potential in the development of cheap small-scale disposable biomimetic sensors. They are suited for a wide variety of biological targets and are compatible with many different measurement techniques such as gravimetric sensing and impedance spectroscopy. One potential sensor platform for mip-based biosensors is the quartz crystal microbalance (qcm). A 4-channel mip/non-imprinted polymer (nip) coated qcm biosensor array was developed on a single piece of quartz crystal. To study cross-channel frequency coupling of the resonance modes, a simulation of crystal designs using finite element analysis (fea) modeling was created. Based on these simulations and using reactive ion etching (rie) to create mesa-like structures on the crystal surface, crosstalk can be severely reduced. The improved functionality compared to the traditional qcms was demonstrated by employing these mesa-type multichannel qcm (mqcm) crystals as an l-nicotine biosensor platform.