Detection of Mycoestrogen Zearalenone by a Molecularly Imprinted Polypyrrole-Based Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Sensor

The aim of the present work was to investigate the feasibility of employing the molecular imprinting polymer technique for detecting the mycotoxin zearalenone using a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) transducer. The molecularly imprinted polypyrrole (MIPPy) film was prepared by electropolymerization of pyrrole onto the bare Au chip in the presence of a template zearalenone molecule. The MIPPy-SPR sensor exhibited a linear response in the range of 0.3-3000 ng/mL (R(2) = 0.993) for detection of zearalenone. The selectivity efficiencies of zearalenone and other structurally related analogues were 1.0 and 0.15-0.27, respectively. The limit of detection and average recovery of blank corn matrix spiked with 30 ng/g zearalenone were 0.3 ng/g and 89%, respectively, and these were found to be comparable to those obtained by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. These results suggest that a combination of SPR sensing with MIPPy film is a promising alternative method for the detection of zearalenone.