Ionic liquid-enhanced silica aerogels for the specific extraction and detection of aflatoxin B1 coupled with a smartphone-based colorimetric biosensor

[Display omitted] •The aerogel pore of poly(VHIm+Br−)@SiO2 can reduce matrix interference.•MoS2/Au exhibited a peroxidase catalytic activity.•A portable signal reading-out platform was constructed on the basis of a smartphone application.•The proposed biosensor had good sensitivity with a LOD of 0.030 ng mL−1.•It provided a high sensitivity and selectivity method for the on-site detection of AFB1. The polymer ionic liquid (1-allyl-3-butylimidazolium bromide) enhanced silica aerogel was modified onto the surface of stainless-steel mesh to immobilize aptamer-1 for the specific recognition of AFB1. The porous channels of silica aerogel could prevent the interference of macromolecules in food samples. Enzyme kinetic analysis showed that the MoS2/Au was an effective peroxidase mimic with a relatively low Michaelis constant (Km) value of 0.17 mM and a high catalytic rate of 3.87 × 10−8 mol (L·s)−1, which exhibited obvious superiority compared with horseradish peroxidase. The established “sandwich-structure” biosensor was coupled with the smartphone “Color Picker” application was used to detect AFB1 with a wide linear range (1–100 ng mL−1) and low detection limit (0.25 ng mL−1). The anti-interference ability of the established biosensor was evaluated by adding different concentrations of standards in corn, peanut, and wheat and matrix effects were 90.84–106.11 %. The results showed that this method demonstrated high specificity, sensitivity, rapidity and low interference in food samples.