Abstract:

Melamine is a widely used industrial raw material that forms stones after ingestion, causing great damage to the kidneys. Because of its high nitrogen content, melamine is often illegally added to milk powder to improve the nitrogen content. Therefore, the qualitative and quantitative detection of melamine in the food industry is critical. This study was based on the supramolecular self-assembly strategy; cyanuric acid was selected as the detection reagent to form the supramolecular structure with melamine, and methylene blue was used as an indicator through the interaction of melamine and cyanuric acid. The melamine in milk powder was quantitatively detected by an ultraviolet spectrophotometer. The reaction conditions of this experiment were mild, the color change was clear, the detection limit was low, and the sensitivity was high. The experiment can be divided into many experimental units and is a novel experiment, thus making it suitable for the undergraduate teaching.

Key words: Melamine, Supramolecular self-assembly, Absorbance, Indicator