A simple and sensitive surface molecularly imprinted polymers based fluorescence sensor for detection of λ-Cyhalothrin

In this study, surface molecularly imprinted YVO4:Eu3+ nanoparticles with molecular recognitive optosensing activity were successfully prepared by precipitation polymerization using λ-Cyhalothrin (LC) as template molecules, methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the polymerization precursors which could complex with template molecules, and the material has been characterized by SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD, TGA and so on. Meanwhile, the as-prepared core–shell structured nanocomposite (YVO4:Eu3+@MIPs), which was composed of lanthanide doped YVO4:Eu3+ as fluorescent signal and surface molecular imprinted polymers as molecular selective recognition sites, could selectively and sensitively optosense the template molecules. After the experimental conditions were optimized, two linear relationship were obtained covering the concentration range of 2.0−10.0 μM and 10.0−90.0 μM, and the limit of detection (LOD) for LC was found to be 1.76 μM. Furthermore, a possible mechanism was put forward to explain the fluorescence quenching of YVO4:Eu3+@MIPs. More importantly, the obtained sensor was proven to be suitable for the detection of residues of LC in real examples. And the excellent performance of this sensor will facilitate future development of rapid and high-efficiency detection of LC.