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White-light emissive upconversion nanoparticles for visual and colorimetric determination of the pesticide thiram

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Abstract

The authors describe the use of white-light emitting upconversion nanoparticles (WL-UCNPs) for visual detection of the pesticide thiram. The method is demonstrated to undergo a better discernable color change upon target binding. The WL-UCNPs are modified with the lead(II)-dithizone complex which acts as the energy acceptor and recognition unit. This leads to quenching of the blue (475 nm) and green (545 nm) emissions of the WL-UCNPs, while the red emission (650 nm) remains unaffected. Upon addition of thiram, the quenched emissions are recovered, with a linear signal increase in the range from 2 nM to 20 nM of thiram and a limit of detection of 0.26 nM. The nanoprobe was further integrated into a test paper for visual detection. The concentration-dependent color change that varies from red to cyan and bluish violet and then to white can be visually distinguished.

Schematic presentation of a white-light emissive upconversion nanoparticle based test paper for color-discernable detection of the pesticide thiram. The test stripe exhibits a concentration-dependent color variation spanning from red, cyan, to bluish violet, and at last to white.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31671011), and grants from the Ministry of Education of Singapore (MOE2016-T3-1-004, R-397-000-270-114).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Huaijing Sun, Jinliang Liu & Jing Zhang

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117583, Singapore

    Qingsong Mei, Swati Shikha & Yong Zhang

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  1. Huaijing Sun
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  2. Qingsong Mei
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  3. Swati Shikha
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  4. Jinliang Liu
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Correspondence to Qingsong Mei, Jing Zhang or Yong Zhang.

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Sun, H., Mei, Q., Shikha, S. et al. White-light emissive upconversion nanoparticles for visual and colorimetric determination of the pesticide thiram. Microchim Acta 186, 106 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-3231-1

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