Fabrication of carbon dots@restricted access molecularly imprinted polymers for selective detection of metronidazole in serum

Abstract

A custom-tailored design was proposed for the fabrication of carbon dots coupled with restricted access materials and molecularly imprinted polymers (CDs@RAM-MIPs) to detect metronidazole (MNZ). Biomass carbon dots (CDs) were derived from longan peels assisted with high pressure microwave, and had the merits of eco-friendly, excellent photostability and low toxicity. In this work, glycidyl methacrylate was used as a co-polymeric monomer to increase hydroxyl groups on the surface of synthetic materials, which eliminated the interference of biological macromolecules. The specific binding cavities of CDs@RAM-MIPs were formed after removing the template molecule (MNZ). The obtained CDs@RAM-MIPs can selectively capture MNZ through the specific interaction between recognition sites and MNZ, and obey photoinduced electron transfer fluorescence quenching mechanism. The highly sensitive and selective fluorescent sensor based CDs@RAM-MIPs had a wide linear range (50–1200 ng mL−1) and a low detection limit (17.4 ng mL−1) for MNZ. It has been utilized to detect MNZ in serum with recoveries of 93.5%–102.7%, and the relative standards (RSDs) were 1.9%–3.6%, respectively. This work provides a thoughtful strategy for preparation and application of CDs@RAM-MIPs, which presages its great potential for detecting trace compounds in real samples.