Rapid detection of sulfaguanidine in fish by using a photonic crystal molecularly imprinted polymer

•A sensor for sulphaguanidine was prepared based on reflection spectra.•The sensor exhibited rapid response and high affinity to sulphaguanidine.•The sensor could be applied to sulphaguanidine residues in food sample. A photonic crystal (PC) sensor was prepared through molecular imprinting by using dispersed SiO2 microspheres as PC, sulfaguanidine (SG) as template, methacrylic acid as monomer, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker. The preparation conditions were optimized as follows: molar ratio of template, monomer, and crosslinker was 1:10:4; pH was 6.0 in phosphate buffer; and volume fraction of methanol was 15%. The relationship between wavelength shift of reflection peak and SG concentration was found as: Δλ = 7.8887 lg(C) + 79.9664. The response time was only 5 min. The limit of detection was 2.8 × 10−10 mol L−1. The sensor exhibited higher specificity for SG than its sulfonamide analogs. The sensor maintained original sensing performance after five cycles of usage. The recoveries of SG ranged from 93.8% to 111.2% in lake water and from 88.5% to 115.2% in fish samples. This finding suggested that the sensor can be used in food samples with complicated matrix.