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BSA-carbon dots a promising “off–on” fluorescence probe for detecting glyphosate residues in agricultural products

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Abstract

The widespread and extensive use of glyphosate in agriculture has raised concerns about its potential impact on the quality and safety of agricultural products. Conventional detection methods require long analysis times, making them impractical for the rapid detection of large quantities of samples. Therefore, developing a fast and simple detection system for glyphosate pesticide residues is urgent. In this study, the development of a facile fluorescence probe synthesized using a simple one-pot hydrothermal method for the determination of glyphosate is an important step toward addressing the need for a fast and simple detection system. The present sensor was created using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a precursor, and the sensor operates by producing an “off–on” fluorescent signal. The bovine albumin-derived BSA-CDs emitted light yellow fluorescence, but this fluorescence was quenched (or suppressed) by the presence of Cu2+ ions. However, the fluorescence can be restored by the presence of glyphosate, which interacts with the Cu2+ ions to form a complex and release the BSA-CDs from suppression. The functional groups in glyphosate can capture Cu2+ and break the BSA-CDs/Cu2+ combinatorial system. The BSA-CDs/Cu2+ fluorescence quenching system had good selectivity for glyphosate. The detection limit of the BSA-CD/Cu2+ fluorescence sensor was 0.05 µg/mL. This developed method was utilized to successfully detect glyphosate in Chinese wheat. The average recoveries ranged from 98.9 to 100.7%, with a relative standard deviation < 3.0%, showing good prospects for practical applicability.

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Data availability

The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper. Should any raw data files be needed in another format they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program of CAAS (CAAS-ZDRW202011), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32072313; 31772071), and the National Special Project for Quality and Safety Risk Assessment of Agricultural Products (GJFP20210105).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Biological and Resources Environment, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, 102206, China

    Qian Wang & Minghong Jia

  2. Institute of Quality Standardization and Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Qian Wang, Miao Wang, Lufei Zheng, Yongxin She & Jing Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Agrofood Safety and Quality (Beijing), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas, Beijing, 100081, China

    Miao Wang, Lufei Zheng, Yongxin She & Jing Wang

  4. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, 12211, Egypt

    A. M. Abd El-Aty

  5. Department of Medical Pharmacology, Medical Faculty, Ataturk University, 25240, Erzurum, Turkey

    A. M. Abd El-Aty

  6. State Key Laboratory of Biobased Material and Green Papermaking, Qilu University of Technology, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Jinan, 250353, China

    A. M. Abd El-Aty

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  1. Qian Wang
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Correspondence to Miao Wang, Lufei Zheng or Minghong Jia.

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Wang, Q., Wang, M., Zheng, L. et al. BSA-carbon dots a promising “off–on” fluorescence probe for detecting glyphosate residues in agricultural products. Carbon Lett. 33, 1935–1945 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-023-00525-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-023-00525-z

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