A novel luminescence sensor based on porous molecularly imprinted polymer-ZnS quantum dots for selective recognition of paclitaxel

Abstract In this study, a molecularly imprinted fluorescent sensor was constructed successfully for selective recognition of PTX by introducing methacryl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (M-POSS) to add porous structure. The obtained fluorescent sensors were prepared by grafting MIP shell on the surface of silane functionalized Mn: ZnS Quantum Dots (QDs) by a free radical polymerization process. The binding properties and selectivity of the MIP-QDs were demonstrated by adsorption capacity obtained based on fluorescence spectroscopy. These MIP-based fluorescent sensors showed good dispersibility and high stability in solution. Under the optimized conditions, the binding experiment demonstrated the fluorescent intensity of the porous fluorescent sensors was obviously decreased with the increase of PTX in the concentration range 0.1 to 2.0 μM and the detection limit was 0.043 μM. These results demonstrated a new type of molecularly imprinted fluorescent porous nanoparticles with potential applications for selective recognition of PTX biological samples.