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Red fluorescent nanoprobe based on Ag@Au nanoparticles and graphene quantum dots for H2O2 determination and living cell imaging

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Abstract

A sensitive and turn-on fluorescence nanoprobe based on core-shell Ag@Au nanoparticles (Ag@AuNPs) as a fluorescence receptor and red emissive graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as a donor was fabricated. They were conjugated together through π-π stacking between the GQDs and single-strand DNA modified at the Ag@AuNPs surface. The absorption spectrum of the receptor significantly overlapped with the donor emission spectrum, leading to a strong Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and thus a dramatic quenching. The sensing mechanism relies on fluorescence recovery following DNA cleavage by •OH produced from Fenton-like reaction between the peroxidase-like Ag nanocore and H2O2. The red emissive feature (Ex/Em, 520 nm/560 nm) provides low background in physiological samples. The •OH production, great spectrum overlapping, and red emission together contributes to good sensitivity and living cell imaging capability. The fluorescence assay (intensity at 560 nm) achieves a low detection limit of 0.49 μM H2O2 and a wide linear range from 5 to 200 μM, superior to most of the reported fluorescent probes. The RSD value for 100 μM H2O2 was 1.4%. The nanoprobe exhibits excellent anti-interferences and shows low cytotoxicity. The recovery of 100 μM standard H2O2 in a cancer cell lysate was 85.8%. Most satisfactorily, it can realize monitoring and imaging H2O2 in living cells. This study not only presents a sensitive H2O2 probe but also provides a platform for detecting other types of reactive oxygen species.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 21345007), the Plan for Scientific Innovation Talent of Henan Province to H. F. Cui (Grant number 154200510007), the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (Grant number 182300410314), the Henan Open-up and Collaboration Program of Science and Technology (Grant number 132106000070), and the Henan Key Project of Science and Technology (202102310346).

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  1. Ling-Ling Shang and Xiaojie Song contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Zhengzhou University, 100# Science Avenue, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Ling-Ling Shang, Xiaojie Song, Chang-Bin Niu, Qi-Yan Lv, Chun-Ling Li, Hui-Fang Cui & Shoutao Zhang

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  1. Ling-Ling Shang
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  2. Xiaojie Song
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Correspondence to Hui-Fang Cui.

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Shang, LL., Song, X., Niu, CB. et al. Red fluorescent nanoprobe based on Ag@Au nanoparticles and graphene quantum dots for H2O2 determination and living cell imaging. Microchim Acta 188, 291 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04940-9

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