A novel luminescent sensor for disaccharide detection in food: Synthesis and application of a water-soluble rod-coil ionic block copolymer

Abstract

A simple and low cost method for detecting disaccharide in food product is important for people who need control the consumption of saccharides in daily life. In this study, a water soluble rod-coil ionic block copolymer poly[2,7-(9,9-dihexyl-fuorene)]-b-cationic quaternized-poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PF-b-PDI) was employed as luminescent sensor for detection of lactose, sucrose and maltose in food. It was found that the PF-b-PDI could emit vision fluorescence with the existence of hydroquinone (HQ) in aqueous, but would be quenched by the oxidization of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The glucose oxidase (GOx) could be used for catalyzing the glucose to generate the H2O2. And the sucrase, maltase and lactase could respectively catalyze sucrose, maltose and lactose to glucose. With the selectivity and catalyst of enzyme, the PF-b-PDI aqueous blend with HQ showed fluorescence sensitive to sucrose, maltose and lactose with detection limit value of 1.36 μM, 1.09 μM and 3.08 μM, respectively. Moreover, the detection of lactose in milk samples by this method just revealed 0.44% of average deviation compared to standard lactose solution, which mean this method was suitable for detecting lactose in milk.