A molecularly imprinted polymer on a plasmonic plastic optical fiber to detect perfluorinated compounds in water

A novel Molecularly Imprinted Polymer (MIP) able to bind perfluorinated compounds, combined with a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) optical fiber platform, is presented. The new MIP receptor has been deposited on a D-shaped plastic optical fiber (POF) covered with a photoresist buffer layer and a thin gold film. The experimental results have shown that the developed SPR-POF-MIP sensor makes it possible to selectively detect the above compounds. In this work, we present the results obtained with perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) compound, and they hold true when obtained with a perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAs) mixture sample. The sensor’s response is the same for PFOA, perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) or PFA contaminants in the C4–C11 range. We have also tested a sensor based on a non-imprinted polymer (NIP) on the same SPR in a D-shaped POF platform. The limit of detection (LOD) of the developed chemical sensor was 0.13 ppb. It is similar to the one obtained by the configuration based on a specific antibody for PFOA/PFOS exploiting the same SPR-POF platform, already reported in literature. The advantage of an MIP receptor is that it presents a better stability out of the native environment, very good reproducibility, low cost and, furthermore, it can be directly deposited on the gold layer, without modifying the metal surface by functionalizing procedures.