Rare-Earth Minerial Harvesting: a New Pathway to Sustainable Engineering”, Chem. Rev. (2001)101, 1833-1860). More recently, selective luminescence sensing of molecular recognition complexes in vitro has become another route to the development of functional nanomaterials. For example, luminescent quantum dots (QDs) such as CdSe are the subject of much attention for biological sensing due to the exceptionally bright and robust photoluminescence that they exhibit in aqueous environments. The brightness, broad excitation spectra and narrow emission lines characteristic of QDs have generated significant interest in developing QD-based biological assays for use in protein detection, DNA detection and RNA detection. More recently, the development of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as selective receptors for QDs and other fluorescent molecules has enabled the creation of QD-based sensors. The functional properties of a functional QD sensor are critically dependent on the identity of the molecular imprinting polymer that interacts with the target analyte to alter the optical properties of the sensor (Schneckenbeck, A. J. and Brands, K., “Quantum Dot Molecularly Imprinted Sensors”, J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym. Chem. (2003) 41, 1449-1458). The luminescence properties of the QDs are typically not altered by their interaction with a target analyte and, therefore, this approach of altering the optical properties of the QD is considered to be a “turn off” sensing approach. In order to overcome this limitation and create a highly sensitive “turn on” QD sensor, a new class of “molecularly imprinted polymers for luminescent sensors” (MIPs-LS) was developed (Schneckenbeck, A. J. and Brands, K., “Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Luminescent Sensors”, J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym. Chem. (2003) 41, 1499-1505). These sensors are constructed by using CdSe/ZnS QDs as a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) donor and ZnS:Mn2+-co-doped semiconductor nanocrystals as an acceptor that exhibits a robust luminescence (Brus, L. S., et al., “Multiplex Sensors for Detection of Biomolecules”, Current Opinion in Biotechnology (2003) 14, 673-681). For example, the interaction of a target molecule with a molecularly imprinted polymer that is complementary to the target molecule leads to the formation of a specific supramolecular complex (binding complex) between the target molecule and the molecularly imprinted polymer. As a result of the formation of a specific supramolecular complex, FRET is disrupted and the emission of the QD-MIP is increased in intensity by an amount directly proportional to the concentration of the target analyte in solution. In the work done by Schneckenbeck and Brands (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2003, 125, 11438), CdSe/ZnS QDs were coated with a layer of a molecularly imprinted polymer that selectively binds 3-quinolinecarboxamide (3-QC) with respect to the closely related compounds acetophenone, 3-methoxy-quinoline and 2-methyl quinoline. This material can be used for the determination of the specific optical signal change that is characteristic of the interaction between 3-QC and the molecularly imprinted polymer. The FRET interaction between CdSe/ZnS QDs and ZnS:Mn2+-co-doped semiconductor nanocrystals was used to produce a supramolecular complex having a high binding affinity between the CdSe/ZnS QDs and the ZnS:Mn2+-co-doped semiconductor nanocrystals and an ability to specifically detect the presence of 3-QC molecules in aqueous solution. The specificity of these materials for a specific target analyte arises from a combination of (i) the ability of the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) to selectively form a binding complex with the analyte of interest and (ii) the ability of the CdSe/ZnS QDs to specifically recognize the analyte of interest via FRET. A number of studies have shown that MIPs can be synthesized for several small molecular weight analytes by choosing appropriate monomers, molecular imprinting chemistries, solvent properties and polymerization additives (Kim, Y. C., et al., “Molecularly Imprinted Polymer: A New Approach to Membranes for Molecular Separation” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. (2004) 43, 2940-2945; Stankovich, A., et al., “Nanoengineering Molecule-Imprinted Polymer Thin Films for Robust and Biomimetic Molecular Recognition” Adv. Mater. (2004) 16, 1114-1117; Schuur, E. S., et al., “Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Monolithic Columns with High Solubility Capacity” J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2003) 125, 14508-14511; Haupt, J., et al., “Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Monoliths for Solid-Phase Extraction” J. Chromatogr. A (2004) 1066, 65-71; Zhang, S., et al., “Molecular Imprinting of Phenyl-Based Benzene Derivatives on Nanoporous Silicon” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2002) 41, 2955-2959; Smyth, J. C., et al., “Molecular imprinting of proteins within polymeric membranes” Nature Mater. (2003) 2, 312-316; Brouwers, J. A., et al., “Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Particles with Defined Surface Areas and Uniform Pore Structures” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2004) 43, 5845-5852; Yigit, M. D., et al., “Molecularly Imprinted Membranes for the Sensitive Determination of Phenol in Water” Anal. Chem. (2005) 77, 782-787; Schuur, E. S., et al., “Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Photonic Devices with High Light Efficiency for the Detection of Polysaccharides” Anal. Chem. (2003) 75, 3649-3654; Zhao, X., et al., “A Photoactivated Molecular Imprinting Strategy for the Discrimination of Hydrophobes from Hydrophiles” Anal. Chem. (2004) 76, 4523-4528). However, each of these methods involves the use of a relatively large amount of an environmentally unfriendly organic solvent, high temperatures and pressures or special cross-linking agents, such as acrylamide. All of these techniques are time consuming, labor intensive and typically lead to the contamination of the samples with the high concentrations of a variety of monomers. In addition, none of these techniques lend themselves to a low-cost, room temperature, high yield and environmentally friendly process. There are many reports of using the surface-imprinted polymers for sensor devices (Qian, W., et al., “Sensing of Trace Metal Ions by Surface-Imprinted Polymers” Anal. Chem. (2002) 74, 5171-5176; Saito, Y., et al., “Titanium Surface-Imprinted Polymer as an Lanthanide Ion-Sensitive Probe for the Detection of Hydrolysis of Glycol Chloroformate” J. Phys. Chem. A (2001) 105, 8843-8849; Stoll, K., et al., “New Sensor Concept: Silicon Monoxide Nanoparticle-Based Surface-Imprinted Polymer Sensors for Sensitive Detection of the Fumigant Metol” Chem. Commun. (2004) 1719-1720; Jang, K., et al., “Molecularly Imprinted Surface Plasmon Resonance Based Sensor for the Selective Detection of Rutin” Anal. Chem. (2004) 76, 5399-5402). However, this technique requires relatively large amounts of organic solvent (usually chloroform) to dissolve the organic monomer and cross-linker. Although the use of highly cross-linked polymers is less sensitive to organic solvents, the sensor is no longer sensitive to small molecules that are dissolved in the same solvent as the template molecules.