Molecularly imprinted sol-gels for nafcillin determination in milk-based products.

A study has been made of the analytical application of a nafcillin-imprinted sol-gel to the direct determination of the beta-lactamic antibiotic in spiked milk-based samples using a room temperature phosphorescent flow-through system. The influence of the sample matrix on the transduction and the recognition processes was statistically determined, and results demonstrated that the imprinted sol-gel optosensing system could be effectively applied to real sample analysis. The analytical performance characteristics were as follows: The detection limit results for aqueous and skimmed milk were 5.8 x 10(-6) and 3.3 x 10(-5) mol L(-1), respectively, and a relative standard deviation less than 5% was found for both matrices. Statistical analysis of variance studies have been shown to have no significant effect on different skimmed milk commercial products over the imprinted material recognition. This fact provides an indicator of the ruggedness/robustness of the proposed analytical system and the possibility to use external real matrix calibration. Application of the method to nafcillin analysis in other milk-based samples is outlined.