MOLECULARLY IMPRINTED NANOCOMPOSITES FOR LOW-COST AND PORTABLE FOOD CONTAMINANTS DETECTION

The overarching goal of this project is to develop an in-situ fabrication procedure to constructmolecularly imprinted nanocomposite-based electrochemical sensors which can be easily adapted to detect multiplechemical contaminantsin the food industry.Objective 1: develop MIPs-based sensors for three model contaminants (sulfadimidine, chlorpyrifos, and ochratoxin A) using the Design of Experiements (DOE) approach to achieve a target detection limit of 1 nM, 4-5 orders of detection range, and selectivity against other commoncontaminantsand interferants in real food samples.Objective 2: Investigate the signal-amplifying effect of Ag nanostructures on MIP's sensing performance and optimize the nanostructure's size, shape, and loading to enhance MIP's sensitivity.Objective 3: imprintstructurally similar analytes using the previously optimized fabrication parameters and evaluate the sensing performance to determine the adaptability of the imprinting system.