TY - CONF A1 - Gawlitza, Kornelia A1 - Kimani, Martha A1 - Kislenko, Evgeniia A1 - Rurack, Knut T1 - Fluorescent molecularly imprinted polymer particles for direct detection of glyphosate in organic solvents and water N2 - Glyphosate (GPS) is the most widely used pesticide in the world whose use increased dramatically after the introduction of genetically modified crops engineered to resist its herbicidal action during application. In recent years, there have been growing concerns over its toxicity following its classification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a probable carcinogen as well as reports of its ecotoxicological effects. This resulted in increased efforts to develop quick and sensitive detection methods. In this work, molecular imprinting was combined with direct fluorescence detection of GPS by improving its solubility in organic solvents using tetrabutylammonium (TBA+) and tetrahexylammonium (THA+) as counterions. To achieve fluorescence detection, a fluorescent crosslinker containing urea binding motifs was used as a probe for GPS-TBA and GPS-THA salts in chloroform, generating stable complexes through hydrogen bond formation. The GPS/fluorescent dye complexes were imprinted into 2–3 nm molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) shells on the surface of sub-micron silica particles. Thus, the MIP binding behavior could be easily evaluated by fluorescence titrations in suspension to monitor the spectral changes upon addition of the GPS analytes. While MIPs prepared with GPS-TBA and GPS-THA both displayed satisfactory imprinting following titration with the corresponding analytes in chloroform, GPS-THA MIPs displayed better selectivity against competing molecules. Moreover, the THA+ counterion was found to be a more powerful phase transfer agent than TBA+, enabling the direct fluorescence detection and quantification of GPS in water in a biphasic assay. A limit of detection of 1.45 µM and a linear range of 5–55 µM, which matches well with WHO guidelines for the acceptable daily intake of GPS in water (5.32 µM), have been obtained. The assay can be further optimized to allow miniaturization into microfluidic devices and shows potential for on-field applications by untrained personnel. T2 - 36th European Colloid & Interface Society Conference CY - Chania, Greece DA - 04.09.2022 KW - Glyphosate KW - Molecular Imprinting KW - Core-Shell Particles KW - Fluorescent Urea Receptors PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-56311 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -