Molecularly imprinted polymer grafted paper-based method for the detection of 17β-estradiol

•A MIP grafted paper-based method for the sensitive and specific detection of 17β-E2 was established.•Synthetic conditions of MIP were optimized to get good recognition ability.•LOD for the detection of milk and human urine samples could reach 0.25 μg L−1.

17β-estradiol (17β-E2) usually is used to promote the growth of animal. Abuse of 17β-E2 has become a global food security problem, because the residues in foods can cause endocrine disorder through the food chain. A novel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) grafted paper-based method for the sensitive and specific detection of 17β-E2 was reported in this work. Results showed that the MIP's optimum synthetic conditions were as follows: 12 mL of acetonitrile was chosen as the solvent; the molar ratio of template molecule, functional monomer and cross linker was 1:12:12. MIP synthesized had a good recognition ability, the limit of detection (LOD) of established detection method for milk and human urine samples could reach 0.25 μg L−1.