A novel insecticide acetamiprid detection in wastewater samples by quartz crystal microbalance sensor based on molecularly imprinting polymer and nitrogen sulphur co-doped carbon dots incorporated TiO2 nanoparticles

Abstract

A new type quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor based on nitrogen sulphur co-doped carbon dots incorporated TiO2 nanoparticles (NSCTi) nanocomposite and molecularly imprinting polymers (MIPs) is presented for acetamiprid (ACE) detection. After the preparation of NSCTi nanocomposite by using microwave irradiation treatment and the hydrothermal method, QCM chip modified NSCTi nanocomposite was developed by using the interaction between gold and sulphur. Then, MIPs based on QCM chip modified NSCTi nanocomposite was designed via the spin coating method providing mono-layered and homogeneous QCM surface in presence of methacryloylamidoglutamic acid (MAGA) as monomer and N, N′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator. After the characterization investigations, the linearity in the range 1.0 × 10− 9 – 2.0 × 10− 8 M with a detection limit (LOD) of 3.3 × 10− 10 M was calculated for ACE. Finally, the developed QCM sensor was applied to wastewater samples with high recovery. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2026.