Colorimetric detection of sulfamethazine based on target resolved calixarene derivative stabilized gold nanoparticles aggregation

Sulfamethazine (SMZ) is one of the most used broad-spectrum antibiotics owing to its low cost and high efficacy towards bacterial diseases. This workreports a novel label-free SMZ sensor based on para-sulfonatocalix[4]arene (pSC4) capped gold nanoparticles (pSC4-AuNPs) for colorimetric detection through the host–guest interaction. The existence of SMZ resulted in the aggregation of pSC4-AuNPs and can be observed through colorimetric assay. A good linear relationship in the range 2.5 ~ 20 nM was obtained with a correlation coefficient of 0.9908. The limit of detection for SMZ was 1.39 nM. High recoveries (90.18–107.06%) were obtained, and RSD ranged from 1.21 to 2.05%. The color changes can be observed from red to gray within 10 min. Combining the supermolecule’s recognition and AuNP’s optical performance, the method paves a new, easy, and rapid way for small target sensing.