Molecularly Imprinted Photonic Hydrogels for Visual Detection of Methylanthranilate in Wine

Abstract Methylanthranilate (MA) is a kind of spice that is illegally added in the wine in China. The determination of MA in wine is an important part of quality control for wine production. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop a rapid method for detection of prohibited spice in wine. In this work, an inverse opal structural molecularly imprinted photonic hydrogels (MIPHs) membrane was fabricated by merging the advantages of photonic crystal and molecular imprinting techniques. The MIPHs membrane was prepared by using MA as template molecule, methacrylic acid as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker, followed by a thermal polymerization at 60 °C. Then the inverse opal structural MIPHs membrane was obtained after removing photonic crystal template and imprinted molecules. The MIPHs membrane exhibited a good selectivity property to MA, and it responded to MA within 6 min. The Bragg diffraction peak shift increased with the increase of MA concentration. A linear relationship was found between the Δλ and the concentration of MA in the range of 0.1–10.0 mM. And the limit of detection in the present work is about 31 μM. Furthermore, a color change of the MIPHs membrane could be observed by naked eyes. Therefore, the smart MIPHs membrane showed great potential in rapid and visual detection of MA in wine.