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Ratiometric fluorescence and colorimetric dual-mode sensing platform based on carbon dots for detecting copper(II) ions and D-penicillamine

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Abstract

A sensing platform with both ratiometric fluorescence and colorimetric responses towards copper(II) ions (Cu2+) and D-penicillamine (D-pen) was constructed based on carbon dots (CDs). o-Phenylenediamine (OPD) was employed as a chromogenic development reagent for reaction with Cu2+ to generate the oxidation product 2,3-diaminophenazine (oxOPD), which not only emits green fluorescence at 555 nm, but also quenches the blue fluorescence of CDs at 443 nm via the inner filter effect (IFE) and Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Additionally, oxOPD exhibits obvious absorption at 420 nm. Since the intense chelation affinity of D-pen to Cu2+ greatly inhibits the oxidation of OPD, the intensity ratio of fluorescence at 443 nm to that at 555 nm (F443/F555) and the absorbance at 420 nm (A420) were conveniently employed as spectral response signals to represent the amount of D-pen introduced into the testing system. This dual-signal sensing platform exhibits excellent selectivity and sensitivity towards both Cu2+ and D-pen, with low detection limits of 0.019 μM and 0.092 μM, respectively. In addition, the low cytotoxicity of the testing reagents involved in the proposed sensing platform facilitates its application for live cell imaging.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Development Plan of Jilin Province (No. 202002056JC), the Industrialization Project of the Education Department of Jilin Province (No. JJKH20200944KJ), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82004005), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China, and the Training Program of Excellent Young Teachers of Jilin University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Qianjin Street 2699, Changchun, 130012, China

    Wei Zhang, Xin Liu, Yue Zhang, Yibing Liu, Wei Wang, Rui Su, Ying Sun, Daqian Song & Xinghua Wang

  2. College of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Qianjin Street 2699, Changchun, 130012, China

    Yu Zhang & Yibing Huang

  3. Division of Clinical Research, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China

    Yanhua Wu

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  1. Wei Zhang
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Correspondence to Yanhua Wu or Xinghua Wang.

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Zhang, W., Zhang, Y., Liu, X. et al. Ratiometric fluorescence and colorimetric dual-mode sensing platform based on carbon dots for detecting copper(II) ions and D-penicillamine. Anal Bioanal Chem 414, 1651–1662 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-021-03789-4

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