A technique for multiplex detection of organophosphorus pesticides and carbamate pesticides has been developed using a suspension array based on silica-hydrogel hybrid microbeads (SHHMs). The main advantage of SHHMs, which consist of both silica and hydrogel materials, is that they not only could be distinguished by their characteristic reflection peak originating from the stop-band of the photonic crystal but also have low non-specific adsorption of proteins. Using fluorescent immunoassay, the LODs for fenitrothion, chlorpyrifos-methyl, fenthion, carbaryl and metolcarb were measured to be 0.02ng/mL, 0.012ng/mL, 0.04ng/mL, 0.05ng/mL and 0.1ng/mL, respectively, all of which are much lower than the maximum residue limits, as reported in the European Union pesticides database. All the determination coefficients for these five pesticides were greater than 0.99, demonstrating excellent correlations. The suspension array was specific and had no significant cross-reactivity with other chemicals. The results for the detection of pesticide residues collected from agricultural samples using this method agree well with those from liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Our results showed that this simple method is suitable for simultaneous detection of these five pesticides residues in fruits and vegetables.
Keywords: Fluorescent immunoassay; Pesticides; Photonic; Suspension array.
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