A novel microfluidic origami photoelectrochemical sensor based on CdTe quantum dots modified molecularly imprinted polymer and its highly selective detection of S-fenvalerate

Driven by the urgent demand of high-selectively point-of-care testing device for pesticide, molecular imprinting-photoelectrochemistry (MI-PEC) was introduced into microfluidic paper-based analytical strategy to design a novel paper-based photoelectrochemical (paper-based PEC) protocol. The MI-PEC strategy was constructed based on CdTe quantum dots dotted molecular imprinted polymers (CdTe QDs@MIPs), and triggered by a common ultraviolet lamp (∼365 nm, 50$). The paper-based PEC sensor was fabricated by immobilizing CdTe QDs@MIPs on paper-based screen-printed working electrodes (WEs) via gold nanoparticles (Au NPs), which was electrodeposited on the surface of WE to improve the electron transfer efficiency for high sensitivity. Using S-fenvalerate as model analyte, the produced photocurrent from the proposed paper-based MI-PEC sensor upon ultraviolet radiation decreased with the increasing concentrations of S-fenvalerate solution, and the quenched paper-based MI-PEC showed a low detection limit of 3.2 × 10−9 mol L−1. This study has made a successful attempt in the development of highly selective and sensitive photoelectrochemical sensor for S-fenvalerate monitoring.