Colorimetric sensor for cysteine in human urine based on novel gold nanoparticles

Herein, a novel, high sensitive, and specific colorimetric sensor for cysteine (Cys) based on pectinase protected gold nanoparticles (P@AuNPs) has been demonstrated for the first time. The P@AuNPs were synthesized by "MW-assisted heat method" and were characterized by UV-vis, TEM, FT-IR and zeta potential techniques. Cys could cause the aggregation of P@AuNPs due to formation of the strong covalent Au-S bond and electrostatic binding. As the Cys concentration increased, the color of the solutions gradually changed from wine-red to blue as well as the large absorption band shifted from 523 to 650nm upon P@AuNPs aggregation. In addition, various experimental parameters such as pH, the amount of P@AuNPs and incubation time were investigated for the optimum sensing conditions. The concentration of Cys could be determined by monitoring with the naked eye or a UV-vis spectrometer. The proposed colorimetric sensor showed an extreme selectivity toward the determination of Cys in the presence of 20-fold all other different interferents. Under optimum conditions, this method exhibited two good linear ranges from 4.85×10^-9 to 3.02×10^-4M (R²=0.996) and 3.25×10^-3 to 1.03×10^-2M (R²=0.999), with a low detection limit of 4.6×10^-9M. Moreover, this colorimetric sensor was successfully applied to the detection of Cys in human urine samples, demonstrating its great value for practical application in biological systems.