Highly sensitive and selective fluorescent sensor for tetrabromobisphenol-A in electronic waste samples using molecularly imprinted polymer coated quantum dots

In this study, an optosensing composite was fabricated by coating a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) layer onto CdTe quantum dots (MIP-QDs) to develop a fluorescent sensor for the determination of tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA). The resulting MIP-QDs composite was well characterized and had ideal properties of morphology and photoluminescence. Under the optimized experiment conditions, this fluorescent sensor exhibited a good linearity with TBBPA covering the concentration range of 1.0–60.0 ng/mL and the detection limit was as low as 3.6 ng/g. This developed MIP-QDs sensor was successfully employed to detect TBBPA in electronic waste (e-waste) samples for the first time. The mean recoveries were in the range from 89.6% to 107.9% with the relative standard deviation below 6.2%, which were in accordance with the results of HPLC-UV method. The average concentration of TBBPA in electric fan and circuit board samples were 260.20 and 707.30 mg/kg, respectively. This study provided a simple, rapid, highly sensitive and selective method to detect TBBPA in e-waste samples.