Zearalenone (ZEN) is highly toxic to humans, and therefore, development of sensitive and effective methods for ZEN quantification in cereal crops is particularly important. Here, an innovative photoelectrochemical (PEC) aptasensor based on simply in-situ conjugated composites of zinc oxide-nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (ZnO-NGQDs) was constructed. On addition of NGQDs, the composites displayed higher PEC signal with 8.8-fold enhancement than pure ZnO nanoparticles. A sensitive and selective PEC aptasensor was fabricated by combining the composites with ZEN aptamer, which yielded an excellent analytical performance for ZEN detection, with a wide linear range of 1.0 × 10-13-1.0 × 10-7 g mL-1 and a low detection limit of 3.3 × 10-14 g mL-1. Good recoveries were obtained using the PEC aptasensor, which were consistent with those obtained using the national standard method (HPLC-MS). Finally, ZEN in mildewing cereal crops was monitored with the PEC aptasensor, exhibiting good potential for application in cereal crops for early diagnosis.

中文翻译：

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使用基于ZnO-NGQDs复合材料的创新型光电化学适体传感策略对霉变谷物中的玉米赤霉烯酮进行定量。

玉米赤霉烯酮（ZEN）对人类有剧毒，因此，开发灵敏有效的谷物作物ZEN定量方法尤为重要。在这里，基于氧化锌-氮掺杂石墨烯量子点（ZnO-NGQDs）的简单原位共轭复合物，构建了一种创新的光电化学（PEC）适体传感器。除了NGQD，复合材料显示的PEC信号比纯ZnO纳米颗粒高8.8倍。通过将复合材料与ZEN适体组合在一起，可以制备出灵敏且选择性的PEC适体传感器，该传感器在ZEN检测中具有出色的分析性能，线性范围为1.0×10-13-1.0×10-7 g mL-1，低检出限为3.3×10-14 g mL-1。使用PEC适体传感器获得了良好的回收率，与使用国家标准方法（HPLC-MS）获得的结果一致。最后，用PEC aptasensor监测了霉变谷物作物中的ZEN，显示出在谷物作物中用于早期诊断的良好潜力。