One-pot synthesis of quantum dot-labeled hydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles for direct optosensing of folic acid in real, undiluted biological samples

A facile and efficient one-pot approach for the synthesis of quantum dot (QD)-labeled hydrophilic molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) nanoparticles for direct optosensing of folic acid (FA) in the undiluted bovine and porcine serums is described. Hydrophilic macromolecular chain transfer agent-mediated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) precipitation polymerization was used to implement the molecular imprinting of FA in the presence of CdTe quantum dots (QDs). The resulting FA-imprinted polymer nanoparticles with surface-grafted hydrophilic poly(glyceryl monomethacrylate) brushes and QDs labeling not only showed outstanding specific molecular recognition toward FA in biological samples, but also exhibited good photostability, rapid binding kinetics, and obvious template binding-induced fluorescence quenching. These characteristics make them a useful fluorescent chemosensor for directly and selectively optosensing FA in the undiluted bovine and porcine serums, with its limit of detection being 0.025 μM and average recoveries ranging from 98% to 102%, even in the presence of several interfering compounds. This advanced fluorescent MIP chemosensor is highly promising for rapid quantification of FA in such applications as clinical diagnostics and food analysis.