Fe 3 O 4 Composite Nanostructures-Enabled Fluorescence Quenching Lateral Flow Immunoassay for Sensitive Detection of Albendazole Residues In Agri-Food Products

This study successfully synthesized Fe3O4@Au, Fe3O4@Se, and Fe3O4@MnO2 nanostructures with inherent oxidation properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. These nanostructures exhibited plasmonic properties, facilitating visible light absorption and spectral overlap with quantum dots fluorescent microspheres (QD-FMs) for quenching QD-FMs via an inner filter effect. Based on the composite nanostructures, we developed dual-mode (colorimetric, CM, “turn off” mode; fluorescence quenching, FQ, “turn on” model) LFIA platforms. Among them, the Fe3O4@Au-based FQ-LFIA demonstrated superior sensitivity for albendazole (ABZ) which is a veterinary with a detection limit of 0.072 ng mL–1, 69.4-fold lower than Fe3O4@Au-CM-LFIA (5 ng mL–1). The result is attributed to the high molar extinction coefficient (8.877 × 1011 M–1 cm–1), strong quenching efficiency (η = 92.2%), and high quenching constants (Kn = 67.236) of Fe3O4@Au. The assay also demonstrated satisfactory recovery (80.4–108.6%) and precision (CV < 13%) for the detection of ABZ in actual samples. The developed Fe3O4@Au-FQ-LFIA is effective for detecting ABZ in agri-food products.