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Protamine-stabilized gold nanoclusters as a fluorescent nanoprobe for lead(II) via Pb(II)–Au(I) interaction

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Abstract

The authors report on a one-pot approach for synthesizing highly fluorescent protamine-stabilized gold nanoclusters. These are shown to be a viable nanoprobe for selective and sensitive fluorometric determination of lead(II) via quenching of fluorescence via Pb(II)-Au(I) interaction. Under optimized conditions, fluorescence measured at excitation/emission peaks of 300/599 nm drops in the 80 nM–15 μM lead(II) concentration range. The detection limit is 24 nM, and relative standard deviations (for n = 11) at concentrations of 0.10, 4.0 and 15 μM are 1.6, 2.5 and 1.9%, respectively. The relative recoveries of added lead(II) in the water samples ranged from 97.9 ± 2.29% to 101.2 ± 1.83%.

Lead(II) ions are found to be able to selectively and sensitively quench the fluorescence of the protamine-gold nanoclusters (PRT-AuNCs). Thereby, an inexpensive, selective and sensitive lead(II) assay was established.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21177052), and the Science and Technology Program of Hunan Province in China (No. 2010SK3039).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Public Health, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, People’s Republic of China

    Yan-Qin Huang, Li-Na Yang, Yong-Sheng Wang, Jin-Hua Xue & Si-Han Chen

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  1. Yan-Qin Huang
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  2. Li-Na Yang
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Correspondence to Yong-Sheng Wang.

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Huang, YQ., Yang, LN., Wang, YS. et al. Protamine-stabilized gold nanoclusters as a fluorescent nanoprobe for lead(II) via Pb(II)–Au(I) interaction. Microchim Acta 185, 483 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-3019-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-3019-8

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