Fabrication of an antibiotic-sensitive 2D-molecularly imprinted photonic crystal

A molecularly imprinted colloidal array (MICA) for the detection of clindamycin hydrochloride (CLI) was prepared by embedding a two-dimensional (2D) polystyrene crystalline colloidal array within a CLI-imprinted hydrogel. The MICA showed a significant response to CLI, in which the particle spacing of the MICA changed 41 nm within 10 min in response to 1 mM CLI, and the structural color of the MICA changed from blue, green, to yellow, and finally, to red. Furthermore, MICA was also used to detect a similar antibiotic, lincomycin, which had only induced a 10 nm change in the spacing. The MICA was reused more than 5 times. This low-cost and naked-eye sensing material provides a label-free way to detect CLI and other antibiotics.