Hollow-structured molecularly imprinted polymers enabled specific enrichment and highly sensitive determination of aflatoxin B1 and sterigmatocystin against complex sample matrix

Abstract

The biotoxins with high toxicity have the potential to be manufactured into biochemical weapons, seriously threatening international public security. Developing robust and applicable sample pretreatment platforms and reliable quantification methods has been recognized as the most promising and practical approach to solving these problems. Through the integration of the hollow-structured microporous organic networks (HMONs) as the imprinting carriers, we proposed a molecular imprinting platform (HMON@MIP) with enhanced adsorption performance in terms of specificity, imprinting cavity density as well as adsorption capacity. The HMONs core of MIPs provided a hydrophobic surface that enhanced the adsorption of biotoxin template molecules during the imprinting process, resulting in an increased imprinting cavity density. The HMON@MIP adsorption platform could produce a series of MIP adsorbents by changing the biotoxin template, such as aflatoxin and sterigmatocystin, and showed promising generalizability. The limits of detection (LOD) of the HMON@MIP-based preconcentration method for AFT B1 and ST were 4.4 and 6.7 ng L−1, respectively, and the method was applicable to food sample with satisfied recoveries of 81.2–95.1%. And the specific recognition and adsorption sites left on HMON@MIP by the imprinting process can achieve outstanding selectivity for AFT B1 and ST. The developed imprinting platforms hold great potential for application in the identification and determination of various food hazards in complex food sample matrices and contribute to precise food safety inspection.