A phosphorescent probe for cephalexin consisting of mesoporous thioglycolic acid-modified Mn:ZnS quantum dots coated with a molecularly imprinted polymer

The authors have synthesized a phosphorescent probe of type SiO2-QD-MIP, where QD stands for Mn:ZnS quantum dots and MIP is a polymer coating that was molecularly imprinted with cephalexin. The nanoprobe with high specificity was prepared via sol-gel polymerization using thioglycolic acid (TGA)-modified QDs as luminescent materials, cephalexin as the template, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane as the functional monomer, and tetraethoxysilane as the crosslinking agent. The SiO2-QD-MIPs were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. The orange emission of the probe, with excitation/emission maxima at 295/590 nm, decreases linearly in the 2.5–50 μg·L−1 cephalexin concentration range with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.81 μg·L−1. The nanoprobe was successfully applied to the determination of cephalexin in (spiked) raw milk and milk powder. The recoveries ranged from 91.7 to 103.7%.