Fabrication of molecularly imprinted nanochannel membrane for ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of triphenyl phosphate

Abstract

Driven by the urgent need for the determination of trace level triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) present in environment, a simple, rapid and ultrasensitive sensor has been fabricated for detection of TPhP by directly measuring transmembrane current. The transmembrane containing artificial nanochannel named polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nanochannel membrane is designed to be grafted by TPhP molecularly imprinted polymers (TPhP-MIPs) on its outer surface and inner surface of nanochannel. After the fabricated membrane banded TPhP, the transmembrane current decreased. The rate of current change is linearly proportional to the logarithm value of TPhP concentrations in the range of 0.001 ng mL−1 -800 ng mL−1. Meanwhile, the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.0003 ng mL−1. This LOD value is much lower than most results acquired by using chromatography-mass spectrometry and electrochemistry (EC) sensor based on the functionalization of electrode, whereas the cost of our fabricated EC sensor is much lower. The newly developed sensor is suitable for real-time or field detection of TPhP. The interference of analogs and non-analogs with similar structure of TPhP can be effectively avoided. The sensor not only exhibits high selectivity for TPhP, but also shows ultrasensitive assay for measuring TPhP in real environmental water.