Core-shell nanostructured molecular imprinting fluorescent chemosensor for selective detection of atrazine herbicide

To convert the binding events on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) into physically detectable signals and to extract the templates completely are the great challenges in developing MIP-based sensors. In this paper, a core-shell nanostructure was employed in constructing the MIP chemosensor for the improvements of template extraction efficiency and imprinted sites accessibility. Vinyl-substituted zinc(II) protoporphyrin (ZnPP) was used as both fluorescent reporter and functional monomer to synthesize atrazine-imprinted polymer shell at silica nanoparticle cores. The template atrazine coordinates with the Lewis acid binding site Zn of ZnPP to form a complex for the molecular imprinting polymerization. These imprinted sites are located in polymer matrix of the thin shells (~8 nm), possessing better accessibility and lower mass-transfer resistance for the target molecules. The fluorescence properties of ZnPP around the imprinted sites will vary upon rebinding of atrazine to these imprinted sites, realizing the conversion of rebinding events into detectable signals by monitoring fluorescence spectra. This MIP probe showed a limit of detection (LOD) of about 1.8 μM for atrazine detection. The core-shell nanostructured MIP method not only improves the sensitivity, but also shows high selectivity for atrazine detection when compared with the non-molecular imprinted counterparts.