Molecularly imprinted polymer-based chemiluminescence array sensor for the detection of proline

A new molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)–chemiluminescence (CL) method has been developed for detection of proline. The molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres were synthesized using precipitation polymerization with hydroxyproline, a structural analogue, as the template. Polymer microspheres were immobilized in microtiter plates (96 wells) which selectively adsorbed the analyte (dansyl-proline). After washing, the bound fraction was quantified based on peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (PO-CL) reaction enhanced by imidazole. The cavity of MIP synthesized with hydroxyproline as template is smaller, which can avoid non-specific adsorption and lead to enhancement of specificity, response speed and sensitivity when recognizing dansyl-proline. Under the optimum conditions, the relative CL intensity has a linear relationship with the concentration of proline in the range of 1 × 10−6 mol L−1 to 4 × 10−5 mol L−1, with a limit of detection 3 × 10−7 mol L−1 (3σ). The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) for proline (1 × 10−6 mol L−1, n = 7) was 3.7%. The MIP–CL method can become a useful analytical technology for determination of proline in real sample.