Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861
DOI 10.1007/s11468-015-0005-4
Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Fiber Optic Sensor
for the Detection of Ascorbic Acid Utilizing
Molecularly Imprinted Polyaniline Film
Anand M. Shrivastav 1 & Satyendra K. Mishra 1 & Banshi D. Gupta 1
Received: 20 March 2015 / Accepted: 8 June 2015 / Published online: 21 June 2015
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract An effort for the fabrication and characterization of
a fiber optic sensor based on surface plasmon resonance for the
detection of ascorbic acid utilizing molecularly imprinted
(MIP) polyaniline film has been reported. The probe is fabri-
cated by coating a thin film of silver over the unclad core of an
optical fiber which is further coated with the molecularly
imprinted polyaniline film using ascorbic acid as template
molecule. The MIP layer creates binding sites complementary
of the shape and size of the template molecule on the surface.
The sensor is characterized for ascorbic acid concentration
solution in the range from 10−8 to 10−4 M. A shift of 22 nm
in resonance wavelength for this concentration range has been
obtained. The concentration of ascorbic acid in the MIP prep-
aration solution is optimized to maximize the sensitivity of the
sensor. In addition, the effect of pH of the sample solution of
ascorbic acid on the performance of the sensor has been stud-
ied and it has been found that the proposed sensor is most
sensitive at pH 7.0. The selectivity of the probe has been
checked by using different analytes and has found that the
probe is highly selective for ascorbic acid. The sensor has
various advantages such as fast response, high selectivity and
sensitivity, low cost, and can be used for online monitoring and
remote sensing applications.
Keywords Optical fiber . Surface plasmon . Molecular
imprinting . Polyaniline . Sensor . Conducting polymers .
Ascorbic acid
* Banshi D. Gupta
bdgupta@physics.iitd.ernet.in
1
Physics Department, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New
Delhi 110016, India
Introduction
Molecular imprinting has grown as a very interesting topic for
researchers for the preparation of containing tailored recogni-
tion sites in polymers [1]. In this technique, molecules are fro-
zen in a polymeric structure and are immobilized in an ordered
fashion. For this functional monomers, template molecule, sol-
vents, and cross linking agents are required. After polymeriza-
tion, removal of template molecule is performed resulting in the
formation of cavities in polymer matrix and are complementary
in shape and size of template molecule. The number of cavities
depends upon the concentration of template molecule present in
the polymer. Depending upon the interaction of template mol-
ecule with polymer matrix, two types of molecular imprinting
is being categorized, covalent imprinting [1, 2] and non-
covalent imprinting [3]. In the first approach, monomer and
template are bound to each other by covalent linkage. Due to
covalent linkage, it is stable and can be employed in a very
wide variety of conditions (like high/low pH, high tempera-
ture, and high polar solvent). In the second approach, the
monomers are connected with template molecule by non-
covalent interactions like hydrogen bonding, electrostatic inter-
actions, and coordination bond formation. Therefore, the poly-
merization condition should be selected carefully so that the
maximum non-covalent interactions occur. Various applica-
tions using molecular imprinting include solid phase extraction
[4], binding assays [5], capillary electro-chromatography [6],
chiral discrimination [7], and sensors [8, 9].
Conducting polymers have received a much scientific inter-
est due to their various attractive properties such as metallic
conductivity, easy inter-conversion between redox states, and
good tenability in their properties. These polymers are found
as very favorable materials for molecular imprinting technology.
The imprinted materials based on conducting polymers are
found very interesting for the development of synthetic
1854
recognition systems and are of good interest in the chemical and
biosensors. Polyaniline, amongst different conducting poly-
mers, has been employed widely for the sensor fabrication due
to unique conduction mechanism, easy processing, mechanical
stability, and great ability to form hydrogen bond [10, 11]. Nu-
merous efforts have been made for the fabrication and charac-
terization of molecular imprinting polymer (MIP) polyaniline
using a number of water-soluble templates to explore them in
the field of molecularly imprinting technology [12].
In the last few decades, surface plasmon resonance (SPR)
has been an interesting technique for researchers for various
sensing applications because it is simple, low cost, and has
fast response [13–17]. Surface plasmons are quanta of the
collective oscillations of free electrons at the metal-dielectric
interface. To excite surface plasmons, Kretschmann configu-
ration is used in which the base of a high refractive index
prism is coated with the metallic layer and the dielectric is
kept in contact of the other surface of the metal layer. When a
p-polarized light from a polychromatic source is incident on
the metal-dielectric interface at an angle of incidence greater
than the critical angle, due to the phase matching of evanes-
cent wave and surface plasmon wave, maximum energy of
incident light is transferred to surface plasmon for its excita-
tion, a phenomenon called surface plasmon resonance. At this
resonance condition, a dip in the reflection spectrum (also
called the SPR spectrum) is obtained at a particular wave-
length called resonance wavelength. As the nature of dielec-
tric at the second interface of metal changes, a shift in reso-
nance wavelength occurs. By plotting the resonance wave-
length as a function of refractive index of the dielectric the
sensor is calibrated. A number of studies have been reported
in the literature that have used molecular imprinting along
with the surface plasmon resonance technique for sensing
[18–23]. This is because of the high sensitivity of surface
plasmon resonance technique and the high selectivity of the
analyte due to molecular imprinting technique.
Ascorbic acid is an important water-soluble nutrient which
is present in fruit juices, pharmaceuticals, vegetables, soft
drinks, and many other biological fluids. It has a very impor-
tant role in ion absorption, ontogenesis, immune response ac-
tivation and biosynthesis, etc. It protects our body from oxi-
dative stress [24] and is also used for the treatment of
Parkinson’s disease and cancer. This works as a power-
reducing agent which has capability of scavenging a number
of enzymatic reactions [25]. However, the excess of ascorbic
acid is also harmful for health because it may lead to gastric
irritation and renal problems. Various methods for the detec-
tion of ascorbic acid have been reported in the literature. Some
of these are electrochemicals [12, 26, 27], first-order deriva-
tive spectrophotometry [28], and surface plasmon resonance
[29]. These methods are quite expensive, complicated, and
time consuming. Thus, a sensor which is highly selective,
low cost, fast in response, and easy in handling is required.
Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861
In this study we have reported a fiber optic sensor for the
detection of ascorbic acid which utilizes surface plasmon reso-
nance technique for high sensitivity and molecular imprinting on
a polyaniline surface for high selectivity. The molecular imprint-
ing produces binding sites which are complementary of shape
and size of the template molecule on polyaniline surface. When
template molecule binds with any of these sites, the volume
around the sensing surface and thus the effective refractive index
of the molecularly imprinted layer also varies. The change in the
refractive index causes the shift in the resonance wavelength.
The characterization of the proposed sensing probe has been
carried out using different concentrations of ascorbic acid solu-
tions. In addition, the effect of the pH of the sensing sample on
the performance of the sensor has been carried out. For the study
of the selectivity of the probe, experiments have been performed
on different types of analyte solutions such as glucose, mela-
mine, and tetracycline. The optimization of the concentration
of ascorbic acid required for the fabrication of the probe has also
been carried out for the best performance of the sensor.
Experimental
Materials
Plastic clad silica fiber of core diameter 600 μm and numerical
aperture 0.4 was purchased from Fiberguide Industries. L-
ascorbic acid, melamine, tetracycline, and N-
methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) were purchased from CDH Bio-
chemical Pvt. Ltd. Ammonium persulphate (APS) was pur-
chased from Sisco Research Laboratory. Glucose, aniline, and
hydrogen chloride were purchased from Fisher Scientific. Wa-
ter used for the preparation of samples was purchased from
Millipore®. Sodium dihydrogen phosphate dihydrate
(NaH 2 PO 4 .2H2O) and disodium hydrogen phosphate
dihydrate (Na2HPO4·2H2O) used for the preparation of phos-
phate buffer solutions were procured from Merck India. Silver
wire (99.9 % pure) was purchased from a local vendor. No
further purification of chemicals was performed.
Synthesis of Polyaniline
For the synthesis of polyaniline, we have used chemical poly-
merization method [30, 31]. The chemical polymerization of
polyaniline was carried out in an aqueous protonic acid solution.
Ammonium persulphate (APS), 45.6 g, was dissolved in 250 ml
of 1.7 M HCl. The mixture was slowly added to 20 ml of aniline
dissolved in 250 ml of 1.7 M HCl solution. The mixing was
carried out at the temperature of environment in the range −10 to
25 °C and was continuously stirred at 600 rpm speed. After an
hour of mixing of solutions, 40 ml of NMP was slowly added
(over the duration of 1 h) in this mixture. The solution was then
left for 7 h for stirring at room temperature to obtain polyaniline.
Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861
Preparation of the Probe
To fabricate the probe, about 17 cm long plastic clad silica
fiber was used. About 1 cm length of the cladding from the
middle portion of the fiber was removed and cleaned three
times by acetone and methanol. The unclad portion was fur-
ther cleaned by high tension ion bombardment process in a
vacuum chamber at a pressure of 5×10−2 mbar. The unclad
portion of the fiber was then coated by silver (Ag) layer of
thickness 40 nm by thermal evaporation method at chamber
pressure of 5×10−6 mbar.
The covalent molecular imprinting on the silver-coated
probe was performed in two steps. In the first step, the
fiber was coated with polyaniline having ascorbic acid
using dip coating method. The second step involved re-
moval of ascorbic acid from the polyaniline film to prepare
the binding sites for ascorbic acid. For the first step,
7.717 g (1.5 mM) of ascorbic acid was dispersed in already
synthesized polyaniline to form an amalgamate. It was
again kept at room temperature for next hours for further
polymerization. Figure 1 shows the interaction of ascorbic
acid (AA) with PANI matrix by the binding of
nucleophiclic (OH−) group with the anilinum (=NH+) group
[12]. The silver-coated unclad core of the fiber was further
coated with resulting polymer (having ascorbic acid as a
template molecule) using dip coating method. For this, the
polymer was kept in a small diameter cylindrical vessel and
the fiber was dipped into the vessel using dip coater for
5 min at room temperature. After removal, the coated fiber
was kept to dry for 5 h. For the second step, the coated
fiber was kept in water for 5 min to remove the ascorbic
acid from the polymer film. Finally, the fiber was kept at
room temperature for drying. This way, a number of probes
with different concentrations of ascorbic acid (0.5, 1.0, 1.5,
2.0, and 2.5 mM) in the polymer were prepared for the
optimization of the concentration of ascorbic acid in poly-
mer. A probe was also fabricated with polyaniline coating
(without ascorbic acid) over silver-coated unclad portion of
the fiber to see the effect of molecular imprinting produced
on polyaniline (also called the control experiment).
Fig. 1 The interaction of
polyaniline with ascorbic acid for
the preparation of PANI-AA
(polyaniline-ascorbic acid) matrix
1855
Preparation of Sample
For the characterization of the probe, solutions of different
concentrations of ascorbic acid were prepared. The concentra-
tion of ascorbic acid solution was selected in the range from
10−8 to 10−4 M. For the preparation of the solutions, a stock
solution was prepared by mixing 0.002 g of ascorbic acid in
100 ml of Millipore® water. By diluting the stock solution, the
ascorbic acid solutions of different concentrations were pre-
pared. The refractive indices of all the solutions were found to
be the same when checked by Abbe refractometer having a
resolution of 0.001. To study the effect of pH of the solution
on the performance of the probe, the solutions of ascorbic acid
of fixed concentration but different pH values were prepared
in buffer solutions. To check the selectivity of the probe, so-
lutions of tetracycline, urea, melamine, and glucose in the
concentration range (from 10−8 to 10−4 M) were also prepared.
Experimental Setup
The schematic diagram of the experimental setup used for the
calibration of the sensor and to study the effect of pH and the
selectivity of the probe is shown in Fig. 2. Both the ends of the
probe were cleaved for the launching of maximum light in the
fiber from the light source. The probe was fixed in a flow cell
having facility of inserting and removing of the solution kept
around the sensing region of the fiber so that the solution can
interact with the ascorbic acid MIP probe. Flow cell was fixed
with a 3D translational stage so that the maximum light could
be launched in the fiber. The light from a polychromatic tung-
sten halogen lamp (THL) (Avalight-Hal) was launched from
the one end of the fiber optic probe. The light guided by the
fiber and exited from the other end was fed into a fiber optic
spectrometer (AvaSpec-3648) interfaced with a computer to
record the transmittance spectrum. Calibration of the probe
was carried out by recording the transmittance spectra for
different concentrations of the ascorbic acid solution. The res-
onance wavelengths were determined from such spectra for
the ascorbic acid solution concentration range from 10−8 to
10−4 M in addition to zero concentration.
1856
Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of the
experimental setup of surface
plasmon resonance-based fiber
optic sensor for the detection of
ascorbic acid utilizing
molecularly imprinted polyaniline
film
Results and Discussion
SEM Analysis
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a characterization
technique which is used to know the information about the
morphology of any surface. In the present study, it has been
carried out to explore the morphological changes in PANI
matrix after dispersing AA and removal of PANI matrix.
Three types of surfaces were prepared for the characterization:
(i) polyaniline deposited on the silver coated fiber core, (ii)
ascorbic acid dispersed in polyaniline having concentration of
1.5 mM deposited on the same substrate, and (iii) polyaniline
after removal of template molecule (ascorbic acid) deposited
on the same substrate. The SEM images of all the three sur-
faces are shown in Fig. 3a–c, respectively. Figure 3a shows the
morphological nature of PANI matrix as reported in the liter-
ature. Figure 3b gives the confirmation of the presence of AA
in PANI matrix by a well-separated bright stone-type struc-
ture. The morphology after removing the AA from PANI ma-
trix is shown in Fig. 3c. It is showing the presence of PANI
matrix similar to that shown in Fig. 3a due to the removal of
AA from the PANI matrix, and these cavities are also due to
the removal of AA from the PANI matrix.
Characterization of Probe
For the characterization of the probe, different concentrations
of ascorbic acid solutions were used in the flow cell. Nine
solutions of ascorbic acid in the concentration range from
10−8 to 10−4 M were prepared. First, the measurements were
carried out on the probe coated with layers of silver film and
molecularly imprinted ascorbic acid over unclad core of the
fiber. The SPR spectra were recorded for each sample solution
of ascorbic acid filled in flow cell fixed with the probe. To
make sure that the previous sample does not affect the trans-
mittance (SPR) spectra of next sample, the probe and the flow
cell were cleaned with Millipore® water after recording the
Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861
spectrum and removing the sample. All the spectra were re-
corded within 40 s after pouring the solution in the flow cell.
The SPR spectra of varying concentration solutions of ascor-
bic acid have been shown in Fig. 4a. The figure shows a red
shift in resonance wavelength as the concentration of the
ascorbic acid increases. The reason behind the shift in reso-
nance wavelength is the presence of active sites on the MIP
ascorbic acid surface. As the template molecule (ascorbic ac-
id) comes near these binding sites, which are complementary
of template molecule, ascorbic acid molecule binds with these
binding sites. Thus, the effective refractive index of the
polyaniline film around the silver layer increases. The varia-
tion of refractive index causes the shift in resonance wave-
length. Another reason of the shift in resonance wavelength
is the conductive property of polyaniline [32]. Figure 4b
shows the shift in resonance wavelength with the variation
in the concentration of ascorbic acid. The figure shows a shift
of 22 nm in the resonance wavelength for the concentration
range from 10−8 to 10−4 M of ascorbic acid. Further, it may be
observed from the figure that the rate of increase in resonance
wavelength with concentration is nonlinear. It decreases as the
concentration of ascorbic acid increases. The decrement in
shift occurs due to the finite number of cavities/binding sites
present in the MIP surface. At lower concentration, the num-
ber of binding sites per ascorbic molecule is sufficient on the
MIP surface to bind them. But as the concentration increases,
the binding sites or cavities available per ascorbic molecule
for binding decreases. For very high concentration, all the sites
are filled and no change in the resonance wavelength is ob-
served on further increase in the concentration of ascorbic acid
and hence saturation in the curve plotted in Fig. 4b is obtained.
The sensitivity is an important performance parameter of any
sensor. For the proposed sensor, sensitivity is defined as the shift
in resonance wavelength per unit change in the concentration of
ascorbic acid solution around the probe. It is calculated from the
slope of the calibration curve plotted in Fig. 4b. Figure 4c shows
the variation of sensitivity as a function of the concentration of
ascorbic acid. The plot shows that the proposed sensor is highly
Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861
Fig. 3 SEM images of a polyaniline film, b polyaniline film dispersed
with ascorbic acid (template molecule) having concentration of 1.5 mM,
and c molecularly imprinted polyaniline film after removal of ascorbic
acid (template molecule)
sensitive at lower concentrations but as the concentration of
ascorbic acid increases, the sensitivity of the sensor decreases.
For 10−4 M or higher concentration of ascorbic acid, the sensi-
tivity of the sensor is approximately zero. The error bars in
Fig. 4b, c show the maximum probable error which may occur
1857
due to resolution of spectrometer, preparation of samples using
measuring pipette and weighing machine, etc. It can be im-
proved by using high-resolution apparatus.
To confirm the role of molecular imprinting, control experi-
ments were carried out on two different probes. The one probe
having coating of polyaniline (without molecular imprinting)
layer over 40-nm thick silver layer on unclad portion of fiber
and, the other, having coating of silver film on unclad core of the
fiber but without coating of polyaniline. Figure 5 shows the
variation of shift in resonance wavelength with respect to
10−8 M concentration of ascorbic acid as a function of concen-
tration of ascorbic acid solution around the probe for control
experiments. For the comparison, the results of molecularly
imprinted probe plotted in Fig. 4b have also been plotted in the
same figure. In the case of polyaniline-coated probe, a red shift
of 8 nm in resonance wavelength was observed while in the case
of only silver-coated probe, no shift in resonance wavelength
was observed. The shift in the first case is due to the conductive
property of the polyaniline. A large shift in resonance wave-
length in the case of molecularly imprinted probe implies that
the MIP polyaniline layer plays a very important role in the
sensing of ascorbic acid. The error bars in Fig. 5 show the max-
imum probable error due to limited resolutions of measuring
apparatus used. To check the reliability of the method used for
the fabrication of the probe, experiments were performed on
number of probes fabricated with same experimental conditions.
The shift in resonance wavelength was found nearly the same in
the case of all the probes for a fixed change in concentration
which indicates the reliability of the method introduced for the
fabrication of the proposed sensor.
Selectivity
Selectivity of sensing of a specific analyte by the sensor is also
a very important performance parameter of any sensor. For the
study of selectivity of the probe, experiments, similar to men-
tioned above, were performed on the proposed probe with
various other analytes. The analytes used were glucose, tetra-
cycline, and melamine. The reason of choosing these analytes
was that they do not belong to ascorbic acid family. The shifts
in resonance wavelength determined from their SPR spectra
for the concentration change from 0 to 10−4 M for different
analytes have been shown in Fig. 6. From the figure one can
conclude that the proposed sensor is highly selective for ascor-
bic acid as compared to other analytes. The selectivity is
highest for ascorbic acid because the MIP surface has binding
sites only for ascorbic acid molecules and molecules of any
other analyte cannot bind with these sites. In the introduction
section, we have mentioned that the binding sites created in
MIP can only interact with the template molecule. This is
because the shape and size of the binding sites are comple-
mentary of template molecule (ascorbic acid). Any other mol-
ecule which is different from ascorbic acid cannot interact
1858 Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861

Fig. 4 a SPR spectra of the

sensor for 0 to10−4 M
concentration range of the
ascorbic acid solution, b variation
of resonance wavelength with the
concentration of ascorbic acid,
and c variation of sensitivity of
the probe with the concentration
of ascorbic acid. The plots are for
the probe prepared by coating
silver layer of 40 nm thickness
and an over layer of molecularly
imprinted polyaniline film over
unclad core of the fiber

with these binding sites. Thus, the volume of MIP ascorbic the shift in resonance wavelength is at maximum for ascorbic
acid surface does not change with any other molecule. Hence, acid and a small shift observed with other analytes may be due

Fig. 6 Shift in resonance wavelength in the case of different analytes

Fig. 5 Variation of shift in resonance wavelength with the concentration samples (ascorbic acid, glucose, tetracycline, melamine) for the change
of ascorbic acid for the probes fabricated using coatings of silver/MIP in concentration from 0 to 10−4 M around the fiber optic SPR probe
polyaniline films, silver/polyaniline films, and silver film. The shift is having coating of silver/molecularly imprinted layer prepared using
with respect to 10−8 M concentration of ascorbic acid ascorbic acid molecule as template molecule
Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861 1859

to adsorption of their molecules with MIP layer. For the

comparison purpose, a shift of 37 nm in resonance wave-
length was obtained with ascorbic acid for the concentration
change from 0 to 10−4 M while a shift of 5, 2, and 3 nm was
found for glucose, tetracycline, and melamine for the same
concentration change, respectively.

Effect of pH

The effect of pH of ascorbic acid solution on the performance

of MIP ascorbic acid probe was also studied. For this study,
the experiments were performed on two solutions of ascorbic
acid having concentrations 0 and 10−4 M. The solutions of
ascorbic acid of these two concentrations but varying pH
values were prepared in phosphate buffer. The SPR spectra Fig. 8 Variation of shift in resonance wavelengths as a function of
were recorded for buffer solution and 10−4 M concentration of concentration of ascorbic acid used in the preparation of molecularly
ascorbic acid prepared in buffer solution of different pH imprinted layer for the change in concentration of ascorbic acid from 0
to 10−4 M around the probe
values. From these SPR spectra, the resonance wavelengths
were determined. Figure 7 shows the variation of shift in res-
different concentrations of ascorbic acid (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and
onance wavelength with the pH of ascorbic acid solution for
2.5 mM) in polyaniline were carried out. The SPR spectra were
the concentration change from 0 to 10−4 M. It may be seen that
recorded for 0 and 10−4 M concentration solutions of ascorbic
the shift in resonance wavelength depends on the pH of the
acid in all the five cases. The change in resonance wavelengths
sample solution. A maximum shift of 37 nm in resonance
determined from the SPR spectra for all the five concentrations
wavelength was obtained for pH 7 of the solution. This is
of ascorbic acid (AA) used in the MIP preparation solution is
due to the electrochemical activity of polyaniline which is
shown in Fig. 8. The probe fabricated using 1.5 mM concentra-
maximum at pH 7 [33]. Error bars show the maximum prob-
tion of ascorbic acid in the preparation of MIP shows the max-
able error for the calculation of resonance wavelength for
imum shift in resonance wavelength. This is due to the depen-
concentrations of 0 and 10−4 M.
dency of binding sites on the concentration of template mole-
cule. For lower concentration of ascorbic acid, there are small
Role of Ascorbic Acid Concentration in the Preparation
number of binding sites created on MIP surface and therefore
of MIP Layer
less number of ascorbic acid molecules bind with these binding
sites and thus the small shift in the resonance wavelength. For
The effect of the concentration of ascorbic acid used in the
1.5 mM concentration, a maximum shift in resonance wave-
preparation of MIP ascorbic acid surface has also been studied.
length is obtained which implies that the maximum number of
To see the effect, experiments on five probes prepared using
binding sites has been created. Now as the concentration of
ascorbic acid increases, the shift in resonance wavelength again
decreases. This is because as the concentration of ascorbic acid
increases the number of binding sites increases, but due to the
finite volume of sensing surface, the shape of the binding sites
gets deformed and hence less number of ascorbic acid molecules
bind with the MIP surface. Thus, an optimum value of the

Table 1 Limit of
detection of sensors Limit of detection Reference number
utilizing various
approaches for the 5.7×10−3 M [24]
detection of ascorbic acid 7.4×10−5 M [26]
1.8×10−5 M [12]
7.4×10−7 M [27]
6.2×10−7 M [29]
Fig. 7 Variation of shift in resonance wavelength as a function of pH of 1.8×10−9 M [28]
the sample for the change in concentration of ascorbic acid from 0 to 1.28×10−10 M Present study
10−4 M
1860
concentration of template molecule is required in the preparation
of MIP layer. Error bars show the maximum probable error in
the calculation of resonance wavelengths for the concentrations
of 0 and 10−4 M.
The performance of the sensor has also been compared with
sensors utilizing different approaches and reported in the liter-
ature for the detection of ascorbic acid. For the comparison, a
limit of detection (LOD) of the sensor has been calculated [34].
In the present case, the limit of detection has been defined as the
minimum change in the concentration of the ascorbic acid
which can be detected by the sensor near blank (zero) concen-
tration. It has been calculated by using the ratio of resolution of
the spectrometer and the sensitivity of the sensor near zero
concentration. It can be expressed as follows:
Δλ
LOD ¼ C ¼
S biotin derivatives and its application to competitive binding assay
where C represents the increment in concentration from blank
(zero) concentration, Δλ is the resolution of spectrometer, and
S is the sensitivity of the sensor at near zero concentration. In
the present study, Δλ=0.333 nm and S=26.384×108 nm M−1.
The substitution of these values in above expression gives
LOD of the sensor as 1.28×10−10 M. Table 1 shows the com-
parison of limit of detection of various approaches used for the
detection of ascorbic acid. From the table, it can be found that
the present sensor has the lowest value of the limit of detection
as compared to other approaches, which makes the sensor
more advantageous.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have fabricated and characterized a surface
plasmon resonance-based fiber optic sensor for the detection
of ascorbic acid using MIP-AA polyaniline film. The probe
has been prepared by coating a molecularly imprinted
polyaniline layer of ascorbic acid on a silver-coated unclad
core of an optical fiber. For the characterization of the sensor
wavelength interrogation method has been used. The sensor is
more sensitive for lower concentrations of ascorbic acid. The
concentration of ascorbic acid required in the fabrication of
probe for the best performance has been optimized. The sen-
sor gives best performance for the samples having pH value
close to 7.0. The sensor has several advantages such as low
cost, high sensitivity and selectivity, low limit of detection,
easy to handle, low response time, and capability of remote
sensing and online monitoring.
Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (India) for the financial support. Anand Mohan
Shrivastav is grateful to UGC (India) for the research fellowship.
Compliance with Ethical Standards Informed consent
Plasmonics (2015) 10:1853–1861
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