Molecularly imprinted photoelectrochemical sensor for aflatoxin B1 detection based on organic/inorganic hybrid nanorod arrays

In this work, an organic/inorganic hybrid nanorod array (P(33DT-co-3TPCA)/[BMIM]Cl-ZnO NRAs) composed of poly(3,3'-dithiophene-co-3-thiophenecarboxylic acid) (P(33DT-co-3TPCA)), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl) and zinc oxide (ZnO) was synthesized by simple electrochemical method through in-situ growing on indium tin oxide (ITO). Due to the introduction of molecularly imprinted conducting polymer (MICP) with good recognition ability and the use of ionic liquid [BMIM]Cl instead of KCl during ZnO growth to regulate and control its micromorphology and photoelectrochemical property, the developed photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor exhibited good PEC performance for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) detection. Under the optimized conditions, the MICP-PEC sensor could linearly response to the target molecule AFB1 in the range of 0.10 ng mL−1-10 ng mL−1 with a detection limit of 0.058 ng mL−1 (S/N = 3). Furthermore, the practicability of the developed MICP-PEC sensor was demonstrated by determining AFB1 in rice and peanut samples. This work provided a new promising organic/inorganic hybrid MICP-PEC sensing platform for toxic small molecule detection.