Molecularly imprinted polymeric microspheres for determination of bovine serum albumin based on flow injection chemiluminescence sensor

A novel flow injection chemiluminescence (FI-CL) sensor for the determination of bovine serum albumin (BSA) using molecularly imprinted polymeric microspheres (MIPMs) as recognition element is reported. The BSA–MIPM was synthesized by suspension polymerization in toluene, using methacrylic acid (MAA) as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as cross-linker in the bovine serum albumin template molecule. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to characterize the surface morphology of the resultant imprinted microspheres. Molecular modeling was employed to simulate the possible recognition process of the MIPM. Then the synthesized BSA–MIPM was employed as recognition element by packing into flow cell to establish a novel FI-CL sensor. The chemiluminescence (CL) intensity was correlated linear with the concentration of BSA over the range of 1.0 × 10−8 to 5.0 × 10−6 g mL−1 and the detection limit was 1.5 × 10−9 g mL−1. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for the determination of 1.0 × 10−7 g mL−1 BSA was 1.4% (n = 11). The sensor is reusable and has a great improvement in sensitivity and selectivity for CL analysis. As a result, the new MIPM–CL sensor had been successfully applied to the determination of BSA in milk samples.