Hollow molecularly imprinted fluorescent sensor using europium complex as functional monomer for the detection of trace 2,4,6-trichlorophenol in real water samples

As an important environmental indicator, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) was proved extremely harmful to human body. In this article, hollow molecularly imprinted fluorescent polymers (@MIPs) for the selective detection of 2,4,6-TCP were devised and fabricated by sacrificial skeleton method based on SiO2 nanoparticles. As the most innovation, highly luminescent europium complex Eu(MAA)3phen played the role of both fluorophores and functional monomers of the MIPs. The obtained @MIPs showed monodispersity and the average particle size was around 130 nm. It had a linear fluorescent response within the concentration range 10–100 nmol L−1 with the correlation coefficient calculated as 0.99625, and the limit of detection was identified as 2.41 nmol L−1. The results show that Eu(MAA)3phen as a fluorophore has high luminescent properties, and as a functional monomer, it can improve the selectivity and anti-interference performance of MIPs. Furthermore, the hollow structure made it possible that the imprinted specific recognition sites distributed on both inner and outer surfaces of @MIPs. The experimental results showed that these @MIPs could be employed to the selective detection of chlorophenols under low concentration. And this work will provide a reference for further optimization of fluorescent imprinted sensors.