Sensitive detection of bisphenol A and S in plastic-packaged frozen meat using trimetallic MOF-coated electrospun nanofibers

Detecting endocrine-disrupting phenolic substances like bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS) in food products due to leakage from plastic packaging is crucial due to their potential health hazards such as hormonal disruption, metabolic disorders, cancer etc. Despite a wide range of bimetallic and trimetallic MOF-based structures have been developed for the sensitive detection of these pollutants; however, achieving a highly selective and sensitive hybrid system with diverse and effective binding sites for simultaneous and selective monitoring of these pollutants remains challenging. To address this, herein we developed a novel electrode system using thiourea functionalized trimetallic (Fe, Co, and Mn) organic framework (S-FCM-MOF) coated polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospun nanofibers. Interestingly, the S-functionalization enhances adsorption capacity for BPA and BPS, whereas PCL improves electrical conductivity and charge density across the FCM-MOF-based electrode surface, thus overcoming the challenge of achieving a highly selective and sensitive hybrid system for the simultaneous and precise detection of these pollutants. This synergistic effect leads to high sensitivity (7.0479, 5.9249 μA/μM/cm²), low detection limits (2.57, 2.91 μM), and wide linear ranges (5–365, 5–360 μM) against BPA and BPS, respectively. Furthermore, the S-FCM-MOF@PCL electrode demonstrates high selectivity for BPA and BPS even in presence of interfering species including Mg²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺, NO₃⁻, KCl, AA, CA, HQ, PNP, KBr and MgSO₄. This innovative designed electrode is effectively used for sensitive/selective monitoring of BPA and BPS from plastic bag-packaged frozen meat samples with high precision and accuracy, thus ensuring the reliability of our designed sensor.