Rapid determination of illegally added Sudan I in cake by triphenylamine functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane fluorescence sensor

[Display omitted] •A novel fluorescence sensor designed and prepared via Friedel-Crafts reaction from POSS and TPA.•The POSS@TPA exhibits sensitive, selective, and reusable fluorescent sensing performance towards Sudan I.•A POSS@TPA based fluorescence method developed and applied in the rapid detection of Sudan I in cake. Triphenylamine functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS@TPA) was prepared using the Friedel-Crafts reaction with tris(4-bromophenyl)amine (TPA) as the functional monomer and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) as the framework. The as-prepared POSS@TPA has a stable structure and accomplished pore performance, allowing for the selective adsorption of Sudan I and result in the fluorescence quenches of POSS@TPA. Thus, the POSS@TPA could be used as sensors to fluorescence detect 0.12–7.4 mg/L Sudan I, with a detection limit of 0.091 mg/L. Moreover, the POSS@TPA have good reuseability can be reused more than 5 cycles after washing. Noteworthily, the response time of POSS@TPA for determination was as short as 1 min. Furthermore, the sensor was effectively used to determine Sudan I in cakes with excellent recoveries (86.4–108.8 %) and relative standard deviations (2.5–4.9 %). The results matched those of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Our work shows great potential in terms of the rapid detection of food safety.