US Patent 7338812 - Nanoparticle biolabel material formed by imprinting

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7338812.html

In order to make nanoparticles sensitive to particular molecule a functionalization procedure is necessary to create a binding site for the molecule. This patent from Industrial Technology Research Institute teaches an interesting method for developing such binding sites by applying molecular imprinting to a plurality of semiconductor nanoparticles (quantum dots). Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for manufacturing a biochemical labeling material, comprising:

providing a plurality of nanoparticles;

bonding the nanoparticles to template molecules by molecular imprinting, wherein the nanoparticles are semiconductors;

polymerizing the nanoparticles to form a matrix with uniformly-distributed template molecules, wherein a functional monomer, a crosslinking agent, and an initiator are added during polymerization of the nanoparticles; and

removing the template molecules from the matrix to leave a cavity with specific area serving as a detection group of the matrix.