Carbon-dots encapsulated luminescent metal–organic frameworks@surface molecularly imprinted polymer: A facile fluorescent probe for the determination of chloramphenicol

In this study, carbon dots (CDs)-encapsulated luminescent metal–organic frameworks@surface molecularly imprinted polymer (CDs@MOF@SMIP) was facilely prepared and applied as fluorescent probe for specific identification and sensitive detection of chloramphenicol (CAP) in food. Fluorescent CDs , serving as signal tags, were encapsulated within metal–organic backbones (ZIF-8), yielding luminescent MOF materials (CDs@ZIF-8). The synthesized CDs, CDs@ZIF-8 and CDs@ZIF-8@SMIP were investigated by morphological and structural characterizations (UV–Vis, XRD, FT-IR, BET, TEM). The CDs@ZIF-8@SMIP probe was demonstrated to have remarkable selectivity and sensitivity towards CAP. Its fluorescence decreased linearly with CAP concentration from 0.323 μg L -1 (0.001 μM) to 8075.0 μg L -1 (25.0 μM), featuring a low detection limit of 0.08 μg L -1 . The CDs@ZIF-8@SMIP-based fluorescence strategy achieved satisfactory recoveries (95.5 % − 101.0 %) in CAP-spiked commercial foods with RSD < 4.4 % ( n  = 3). These results indicate that this method can effectively detect trace CAP in food matrices and has broad application prospects.