Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2001.

Nanotechnology holds great potential for improving our lives by creating many new materials and devices in medical sciences, electronics and also in energy production. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are highly stable synthetic polymers that possess molecular recognition properties due to cavities created in the polymer matrix that are complementary to an analyte both in shape and in positioning of functional groups. These MIPs have been widely employed for diverse applications (e.g., in chromatographic separation, drug screening, chemosensors, catalysis, immunoassays etc) due to their specificity towards the target molecules and high stability against physicochemical perturbations. Conductive polymers, (CPs) such as polypyrrole, can be likened to semiconductors because of small band gaps and low electronic mobility. CPs are exploited as an excellent tool for the preparation of nanocomposites with nano scaled biomolecules. Polypyrrole (Ppy) was the first of this key family of compounds to show high conductivity. So, electrically conducting polypyrrole (Ppy) has numerous applications. In this study, caffeine imprinted electrodes (CIE) were prepared and characterized. This research project mainly focused on three important aspects: &#;To determine the thickness of the polymeric film. &#;To determine the Limit of detection (LOD) of the polymeric film at different conditions. &#;To determine the Analytical Sensitivity (γ) of the polymeric film at varied conditions. In summary these are conclusions stated: •The thickness of the electrode increased with an increase in the number of pulses. The film thickness increased linearly up to an application of 30 pulses and after 30 pulses, an increase in slope occurred with again a linear correlation up to the maximum applied number of pulses, 42. This change in slope may indicate a different mechanism taking place. •LOD is improved as the caffeine load is reduced from 10.0 to 3.0 mM and as the number of pulses is reduced from 36 to 24. •γ increases the number of pulses increase from 24 to 36 and also increases as the caffeine load increases.

This thesis reports the design, synthesis, optical resolution of polypyridyl metal complexes and their molecular recognition of DNA. These metal complexes have been synthesised to bind DNA intercalation in a sequence selective manner. Modifications have manipulated the intercalative segments to bind to DNA in a rigid fashion by appending chemical groups directly to the aromatic extensions of the fragment. Also the ancillary non-intercalative ligands comprised of either bidentates or tetradentates, have been specifically chosen to deliver appended groups along the DNA sugar phosphate backbone, for hydrogen bonding and van der Waals interactions. Classical and chromatographic separation methods were investigated to separate the optical isomers of these ruthenium (II) complexes. A liquid recycling chromatography system was most successfully employed. Stereoselective synthesis was also investigated. Ultimately, it has been shown that the systematic modification of simple metal complexes is a useful method in determining the interactions of simple metal for nucleic acids. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)