Detection in Food Design of magnetic metal-organic frameworks-molecularly imprinted polymer for extracting and microfluidic sensing of sulfamethoxazole
image: This illustration depicts the design of a smart magnetic composite material and its integration into a microfluidic chip for the rapid detection of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX). The process encompasses the synthesis of the functional material, its specific capture of SMX molecules, and the on-chip magnetic separation and colorimetric detection, enabling a streamlined, elution-free workflow.
Credit: Nano Research, Tsinghua University Press
In recent years, the overuse of antibiotics has led to increasingly prominent residue issues in the environment and food, posing a serious threat to ecosystems and human health. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX), a commonly used broad-spectrum sulfonamide antibiotic, tends to persist in the environment due to its high-water solubility and stability, promoting the emergence and spread of drug-resistant bacteria and potentially posing risks to humans through the food chain. However, although traditional detection methods offer high sensitivity, they rely on expensive equipment and complex sample pretreatment steps, making them unsuitable for rapid on-site screening. Therefore, developing new methods that integrate efficient enrichment, high-sensitivity detection, and portable operation is of great significance for achieving rapid on-site detection of antibiotics.
Recently, a research team led by Professor Jin-Ming Lin from Tsinghua University and Professor Zenghe Li from Beijing University of Chemical Technology synthesized a functional molecularly imprinted–magnetic MOF composite material (Fe3O4@PCN-222@MIP). By combining it with microfluidic technology, they proposed an innovative “enrichment-sensing” integrated approach, enabling highly sensitive and visual detection of SMX in food. This achievement was published in Nano Research under the title “Design of magnetic metal organic frameworks molecularly imprinted polymer for extracting and microfluidic sensing of sulfamethoxazole.”
The core innovation of this work lies in designing a composite material that integrates “three-in-one” functions: Fe3O4 provides magnetic responsiveness for rapid separation, the zirconium-based MOF (PCN-222) offers a vast adsorption surface, and the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) specifically recognizes and captures SMX. Meanwhile, the material exhibits peroxidase-like catalytic activity, and the capture of SMX inhibits its catalytic colorimetric reaction, thereby achieving intuitive visual output of “capture-and-detect.” Furthermore, a microfluidic chip was designed to integrate the entire process of sample mixing, enrichment, separation, and in-situ colorimetric detection, cleverly bypassing the tedious washing steps required in traditional methods. The results show that this method offers a wide linear range and high sensitivity for SMX detection, with high consistency compared to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and it has been successfully applied to detect SMX in complex food matrices such as milk and honey. This study not only provides a feasible solution for monitoring trace antibiotics but also proposes a general design strategy for MOF composite materials applicable to biological/chemical sensing and analytical applications.
Other contributors include Ziyang Zhu, Gaowa Xing, Li Xue, Wanting Yan, Wanqing Hu, Jiawei Li, Zirui Wang, and Zenghe Li from Tsinghua University and Beijing University of Chemical Technology in Beijing, China.
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFC3400700)
DOI Link:
https://doi.org/10.26599/NR.2026.94908495
About Nano Research
Nano Research is a peer-reviewed, open access, international and interdisciplinary research journal, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society, published by Tsinghua University Press on the platform SciOpen. It publishes original high-quality research and significant review articles on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, ranging from basic aspects of the science of nanoscale materials to practical applications of such materials. After 18 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. Nano Research has published more than 1,000 papers every year from 2022, with its cumulative count surpassing 8,000 articles. In 2025 InCites Journal Citation Reports, its 2025 IF is 9.4 (8.3, 5 years), and it continues to be the Q1 area among the four subject classifications. Nano Research Award, established by Nano Research together with TUP and Springer Nature in 2013, and Nano Research Young Innovators (NR45) Awards, established by Nano Research in 2018, have become international academic awards with global influence.