A novel electrochemical immunosensor for highly sensitive detection of aflatoxin B1 in corn using single-walled carbon nanotubes/chitosan

A sensitive electrochemical immunosensor for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) detection based on single-walled carbon nanotubes/chitosan was presented. The immunosensor was based on an indirect competitive binding to a fixed amount of anti-AFB1 between free AFB1 and AFB1-bovine serum albumin, which conjugate immobilized on covalently functionalized nanotubes/chitosan laid on the glass carbon electrode. Then, the anti-mouse immunoglobulin G secondary antibody labeled with alkaline phosphatase was bound to the electrode surface through reacting with primary antibody. Finally, alkaline phosphatase catalyzes the hydrolysis of the substrate α-naphthyl phosphate, which produced electrochemical signal. Compared with conventional methods, the established immunosensor was more sensitive and simple. Under optimal conditions, this method could quantitatively detect AFB1 from 0.01 to 100 ng mL−1 with a detection limit of 3.5 pg mL−1. Moreover, the immunosensor was successfully applied to assay AFB1 in corn powder, which showed good correlation with the results obtained from high performance liquid chromatography.