Intelligent logic-gate-integrated capillary fluorescence imprinted microarray sensor for rapid simultaneous detection...

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) extensively distributed in the environment have imposed severe hazards on ecological systems and human health owing to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. Herein, a capillary fluorescence imprinted microarray sensor integrated with intelligent logic gate was constructed to achieve the rapid visual identification and quantification of three EDCs involving dibutyl phthalate (DBP), bisphenol A (BPA), triphenyl phosphate (TPHP), and their mixtures. Three molecularly imprinted polymers were respectively controllably modified onto a capillary inner surface with static gas-driven coating approach to obtain a golden-hoop-type microarray sensor, generating specific fluorescence responses and distinguishable color variations toward the three target EDCs. By integrating fluorescence sensing with one-step image analysis, the capillary fluorescence microarray sensor achieved a rapid response toward DBP, BPA, and TPHP within 3.5 min, with favorable sensitivities of 0.65, 7.2, and 4.6 nM, respectively. Furthermore, this capillary fluorescence microarray sensor successfully recognized DBP, BPA and TPHP in spiked biological and food matrices. The proposed multi-segment microarray sensing strategy combined with intelligent logic gates achieves the improvement in anti-interference ability, detection intelligence and practicability, providing a promising strategy for the on-site simultaneous rapid detection of multiple EDCs with a microvolume (50 μL/time) in real samples.