Molecular imprinted polymer based electrochemical sensor for selective detection of paraben

Abstract A new, simple, rapid, sensitive and selective disposable sensor platform was developed for the electrochemical detection of paraben based on molecular imprinting technique. Highly selective and specific recognition was established for the analyte through incorporating amino acid based polymerizable functional monomer. Paraben-imprinted poly-(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-N-methacryloyl-L-phenylalanine) (PHEMA-MAPA) nanofilm on a screen-printed gold electrode surface in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was synthesized by the molecular imprinting technique. Characterization of the fabricated electrode surfaces were performed with cyclic voltammetry (CV), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and attenuated total reflection fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (ATR FT-IR). The electrochemical behavior of paraben was investigated using CV and electrochemical detection studies were carried out with square wave voltammetry (SWV). Under optimal conditions, the linear working range was found to be 1–30 μM with a low detection limit as 0.706 μM. The obtained recovery values proved that the developed sensor can be effectively applied to cosmetic samples. Besides, the fabricated disposable sensor system can be used successfully in the determination of other important analytes in the future due to its good sensor performance.