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Development of gold nanoclusters based direct fluorescence restoration approach for sensitive and selective detection of pesticide

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Abstract

Pesticide contamination of drinking water is of high concern due to their hazardous effects on ecosystems. Several detection methods are available which are associated with many drawbacks, e.g. slow response time and laborious procedural techniques. This limits their practicability. Therefore, there is a dire need to develop quick, simpler but equally sensitive and practical methods for pesticide detection. Herein, we report a highly sensitive assay using fluorescent AuNCs for the detection of a pesticide i.e., 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA). For this purpose, three different fluorescent Au nanoclusters stabilized by histidine (His-AuNCs), lysozyme (Lys-AuNCs) and RNase (RNase-AuNCs) were systematically studied as optical probes for the detection of MCPA using a turn-on assay. The fluorescence of these AuNCs was initially quenched with Cu2+ ions followed by the quantitative recovery of their fluorescent signals in the presence of MCPA. The sensitivity and selectivity of these clusters for MCPA were in a linear dynamic range, i.e., 110–180 nM, 100–170 nM and 90–160 nM in case of His-AuNCs, Lys-AuNCs and RNase-AuNCs, respectively. Also, the aforesaid clusters were having a different limit of detection (LOD) by each type, i.e., highest by His-AuNCs (21.87), intermediate by Lys-AuNCs (12.97) and lowest by RNase-AuNCs (9.26 nM). Hence, the RNase-AuNCs are found to be the most sensitive, whereas His-AuNCs are least sensitive for the detection of MCPA. These findings offer a rapid, sensitive and selective assay for MCPA detection and have potential implications for the on-site, real-time monitoring of noxious pollutants.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Pakistan, and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) for providing research facilities to conduct these studies. AI wants to thank International Foundation for Science, Sweden (Grant Number W-5573) for providing funds for this work.

Funding

This work was supported by the funding from International Foundation for Science (Grant no: W-5573).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Jhang Road, Faisalabad, Pakistan

    Kanwal Nazir, Ayesha Ahmed, Yumna Zaheer & Ayesha Ihsan

  2. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, SBA School of Science and Engineering (SSE), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), DHA, Lahore, 54792, Pakistan

    Syed Zajif Hussain & Irshad Hussain

  3. Marshall Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering, International Cancer Center, Laboratory of Evolutionary Theranostics (LET), School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen, University Health Science Center, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Muhammad Rizwan Younis

  4. Department of Chemistry, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan

    Mukhtair Ahmed

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  1. Kanwal Nazir
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Nazir, K., Ahmed, A., Hussain, S.Z. et al. Development of gold nanoclusters based direct fluorescence restoration approach for sensitive and selective detection of pesticide. Appl Nanosci 10, 3411–3420 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-020-01469-w

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