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Updated: Apr 7, 2026
Synthesis of Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters for Biological Applications
Published on: March 22, 2020
Fluorescence switching method for cascade detection of salicylaldehyde and zinc(II) ion using protein protected gold
Xi Liu1, Changhui Fu2, Xiangling Ren2
1Laboratory of Controllable Preparation and Application of Nanomaterials, Center for Micro/nanomaterials and Technology, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun, East Road, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
A new fluorescence switching sensor for cascade detection of salicylaldehyde (SA) and Zinc(II) ion was developed based on bovine serum albumin protected gold nanoclusters (BSA-AuNCs). In the detection, SA interacted with amino groups of BSA-AuNCs, inducing simultaneous formation of fluorescent Schiff base and fluorescence quenching of AuNCs. Zn(II) could further strongly coordinate with the Schiff base ligands, leading to blue-shift and increase of the fluorescence from Schiff base-metal coordination complexes and simultaneous recovery of fluorescence from AuNCs. The new fluorescence switching sensor for Zn(2+) detection has advantages of simplicity, rapidity, naked-eye detection, high sensitivity and selectivity. The linear range of the method for Zn(2+) detection is from 0.1 μM to 100 μM with the limit of detection (LOD) of 29.28 nM. In practical samples, the recoveries of the samples ranged from 99.63% to 100.58%.
