Tracing antibiotics in food through dual-mode ratiometric luminescence core-shell nanoparticles

Tracing antibiotics from food is crucial and challenging due to the widespread global implementation of antibiotics for animal disease prevention and controls, which could potentially cause serious health risks in humans. Herein, rare earth doped nanoparticles (RENPs) with amino-SiO₂ modification were designed for dual-mode luminescence sensing of furazolidone (FZD) antibiotic. FZD extensively suppressed the UV upconversion luminescence (UCL), keeping the green UCL unchanged as the internal reference; the downconversion luminescence (DCL) was significantly quenched by FZD. The RENPs@SiO₂-NH₂ nanoprobe exhibited UCL ratiometric and DCL sensing with high sensitivity and specific recognition towards FZD in linear ranges of 0.05-300 and 1-300 μmol·L^-1, with 0.033 and 0.064 μmol·L^-1 LOD, respectively. The RENPs@SiO₂-NH₂ nanoprobe was validated using FZD reference material with recoveries in range of 96-114 %, and successfully detecting FZD from milk and chicken meat samples. The proposed dual mode luminescence nanoprobe is promising for precise and specific FZD determination in food samples.