Constructing hollow ZIF-8/CDs@MIPs fluorescent sensor from Osmanthus leaves to specifically recognize bovine hemoglobin

A hollow fluorescence sensor of H-ZIF-8/CDs@MIPs was designed with biomass CDs and ZIF-8, which showed a better selectively and sensitivity towards BHb in real samples. • The leaves were used for the preparation fluorescence carbon dots. • A hollow fluorescence sensor was designed for the detection of hemoglobin. • The unique fluorescence sensor has the potential for detecting hemoglobin in bovine urine. To develop non-toxic, highly efficient and selective fluorescence sensors was a significance research. In this work, a novel hollow fluorescence sensor was designed with biomass carbon dots (CDs), ZIF-8 and molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) via aqueous polymerization. The results demonstrated such unique structure fluorescence sensor exhibited fast response time, excellent stability and highly selectively towards bovine hemoglobin (BHb). Even in a complex environment, the hollow fluorescence sensor (H-ZIF-8/CDs@MIPs) still has a good recognition effect on BHb. Under an optimized condition, the hollow fluorescence sensor was quenched linearly with BHb concentration in the range of 0.058–4.5 μM with the detection limit of 15.6 nM. In addition, a possible quenching mechanism of hollow fluorescence towards BHb was confirmed resonance energy transfer (FRET). In the actual application process, the hollow fluorescence sensor showed a better detection performance towards BHb with the recoveries ranged of 98.6–101.1 %. This work provided a strategy to design green and unique hollow fluorescence sensor for practical application.