Turn -on FRET-based cysteine sensor by sulfur-doped carbon dots and Au nanoparticles decorated WS₂ nanosheet

Cysteine is an essential biothiol that plays various functions in the human body. Decrease or exceeding of this excellent antioxidant from the expected range will lead to so many problems. Thus, appropriate sensing of it would be of great importance. Sulfur-doped carbon Dots(S-CDs) owe excellent fluorescence emission. Therefore, designing a Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) system between S-CDs as donor and Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) decorated tungsten disulfide nanosheet (WS2 NSs) would be a perfect strategy for cysteine detection. Excitation at 340 nm will give the maximum quantum yield of S-CDs (21%) and fluorescence emission peak at 460 nm. In the presence of cysteine, the FRET mechanism inhibited through the affinity of cysteine's functional groups (-SH and -NH2) toward AuNPs and S-CDs fluorescence emission was recovered. To find the best efficiency of the system, optimization of pH, temperature, and time was investigated. Here the linear range of 3-275 µM and limit of detection of 0.01 µM was obtained. Finally, the fluorescence method was applied to the analysis of cysteine in human blood serum, which poses the potential of rapid and sensitive sensing. It can detect both lower and higher amounts of serum cysteine.