Fluorescence detection of bisphenol A in aqueous solution using magnetite core-shell material with gold nanoclusters prepared by molecular imprinting technique

Abstract

Technologies for detecting endocrine disrupting compounds such as bisphenol A (BPA) in an aqueous solution in a convenient way and low cost have gained much attention. In this work, to overcome the drawbacks of current detection methods, we applied molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) to core-shell materials. The core-shell material has the advantage that both properties of the core and shell materials can be used simultaneously. After binding BPA in an aqueous solution, the magnetic core material was able to be recovered using magnetism. In addition, functional groups were easily introduced using silica as a shell material. Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and MIPs were used to give changes in the fluorescence intensity when BPA was bound to the prepared core-shell material. The physical properties of the prepared Fe3O4@SiO2@AuNCs-MIP (CS-MIP) were analyzed and fluorescence intensities of CS-MIP for BPA were examined. The prepared material was recovered using a magnet, and the recovered CS-MIP was regenerated to investigate how the fluorescence properties for BPA changed in the subsequent reuses.