Development and application of a quartz crystal microbalance sensor based on molecularly imprinted sol-gel polymer for rapid detection of patulin in foods

•A simple MIPs-QCM sensor was developed for trace patulin detection.•The novel MIPs was synthesized through sol-gel process.•The sensor showed good selective affinity, reproducibility and stability.•This work may provide a promising method for sensing applications.

A simple quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor based on a sol-gel molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) film as the recognition element was developed for patulin (PAT) detection. The high adsorption capacity of the proposed MIP for PAT was demonstrated by Scatchard equation analysis. Through the evaluation, based on the QCM frequency change, the developed sensor exhibited a linear concentration range of PAT from 7.5 × 10−3 μg mL−1 to 6 × 10−2 μg mL−1 with a lower detection limit of 3.1 × 10−3 μg mL−1 (S/N = 3). The sensor showed good selective affinity for PAT (selectivity coefficient = 3.82) as well as good reproducibility and long-term stability. The developed sensor was tested on its ability to detect PAT in real samples through a spiking and recovery study with the recoveries ranging from 76.9% to 91.3% (RSDs < 8.4%). The good agreement results of the established MIP-QCM sensor and HPLC–MS method indicated that the developed method could accurately detect PAT in practical food samples.