Construction of AuNPs/reduced graphene nanoribbons co-modified molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor for the detection of zearalenone.

In this work, a highly sensitive and selective molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor is exploited to detect zearalenone (ZEA) by the synergistic effect of reduced graphene nanoribbons (rGNRs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The oxidized GNRs are firstly produced by an improved Hummers' oxidation method, and then reduced and modified together with AuNPs onto a glassy carbon electrode by electrodeposition technique to realize collaborative amplification of electrochemical signal. The molecularly imprinted polymer film with specific recognition sites can be generated on the modified electrode by electropolymerization. The effect of experimental conditions is systematically investigated to obtain the best detection performance. It is found that the constructed sensor shows a wide linear range of 1-500 ng·mL for ZEA with a detection limit as low as 0.34 ng·mL. Obviously, our constructed molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor shows great potential in the application of precisely detecting ZEA in food.