A Novel Sensing Methodology to Detect Furfural in Water, Exploiting MIPs, and Inkjet-Printed Optical Waveguides

A novel optical platform has been used to monitor the interaction between a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) and a small molecule. The new optical sensor is made of a polyethylene terephthalate substrate with a pattern of silver nanoparticles, printed on it by inkjet technology, and two plastic optical fibers (POFs). The POFs connect the optical sensor, later covered by the MIP layer, with a light source and with a spectrometer. The detection of furfural (furan-2-carbaldehyde, 2-FAL) in aqueous media was investigated exploiting a selective MIP receptor. The experimental results show that this novel approach presents a limit of detection of about 0.03 ppm, comparable to that of plasmonic sensors combined with the same MIP, but with the advantage of an easier preparation procedure.