Simultaneous Detection of Adenosine Triphosphate and Glucose Based on the Cu-Fenton Reaction

Both adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and glucose are important to human health, and their abnormal levels are closely related to angiocardiopathy and hypoglycaemia. Therefore, the simultaneous determination of ATP and glucose with a single test mode is highly desirable for disease diagnostics and early recognition. Herein, a new fluorescence on/off switch sensing platform is developed by carbon nanodots (CNDs) to detect ATP and glucose simultaneously. The fluorescence of CNDs can be quenched by Cu²⁺ and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), due to the formation of hydroxyl radicals (·OH) produced in the Cu-Fenton reaction. Based on the high affinity of Cu²⁺ with ATP, the fluorescence of CNDs will recover effectively after adding ATP. Additionally, glucose can be efficiently catalyzed by glucose oxidase (GOx) to generate H₂O₂, so the platform can also be utilized to analyze glucose. Under optimum conditions, this sensing platform displays excellent sensitivity and the linear ranges are from 0.1 to 7 μM for ATP with a limit of detection (LOD) of 30.2 nM, and from 0.1 to 7 mM for glucose with a LOD 39.8 μM, respectively. Benefiting from the high sensitivity and selectivity, this sensing platform is successfully applied for simultaneous detection of ATP and glucose in human serum samples with satisfactory recoveries.