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A Green, Simple, and Rapid Detection for Amaranth in Candy Samples Based on the Fluorescence Quenching of Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots

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Abstract

With the increasing of the food safety awareness, the quality control of amaranth as the common food additives was significant for human’s physical health. The objective of this study was to establish a green, simple, and rapid fluorescence sensor for amaranth quantification detection. The nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) were synthesized under a friendly environment and non-toxic material to be employed for fluorescent donor. The addition of amaranth induced the fluorescence intensity of NGQDs to be decreased which was attributed to the reaction between carboxyl group on the NGQDs surface and sulfonic group of amaranth to form the conjugated construct regardless of the hydrogen bond. Meanwhile, the operational parameters such as pH value, reaction temperature, and incubating time were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the fluorescence intensity varied linearly with concentration in the range from 0.4 to 3.5 μg/L with the low limit of detection at 0.15 μg/L. Moreover, this proposed fluorescence sensor had good sensitivity and specificity for amaranth determination and was utilized for real candy sample detection with satisfactory recoveries. All these abovementioned indicated that this as-prepared fluorescence sensor offers a feasible and reliable method for designing simple, environment-friendly, and rapid sensors to determine amaranth based on NGQDs, which could be further used to be a tool for practical food additives detection.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20180979), the University Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. 18KJB550003), the Research Foundation of Zhenjiang Science and Technology Bureau (No. FZ2017068, NY2017012, GZ2017006, SH2017053), the Research start-up fund of Jiangsu University of science and technology (No. 11829317, 1182931801), the Key Science and Technology Projects of Jiangsu Province (No. BE2016355), and the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (No. 1610212018005).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Grain Science and Technology, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, China

    Yaqi Li, Dezhao Kong & Jianguo Sheng

  2. Sinograin Zhenjiang Grains&Oils Quality Testing Center, Zhenjiang, 212006, China

    Shilong Luo

  3. School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Li Sun

  4. Key Laboratory of Modern Agriculture Equipment and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Kun Wang

  5. Tea Research Institute, The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310008, China

    Chunwang Dong

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  1. Yaqi Li
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Correspondence to Yaqi Li or Chunwang Dong.

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Yaqi Li declares that he has no conflict of interest. Shilong Luo declares that he has no conflict of interest. Li Sun declares that he has no conflict of interest. Dezhao Kong declares that he has no conflict of interest. Jianguo Sheng declares that he has no conflict of interest. Kun Wang declares that he has no conflict of interest. Chunwang Dong declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Highlights

• Nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) were synthesized under a friendly environment.

• NGQDs were used as fluorescent donor for the fabrication of fluorescence sensor for amaranth detection.

• The fluorescence signal was quenched by amaranth addition to trigger the amide reaction between NGQDs and amaranth.

• The method possesses the advantages of cheapness, non-toxicity, and speed.

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Li, Y., Luo, S., Sun, L. et al. A Green, Simple, and Rapid Detection for Amaranth in Candy Samples Based on the Fluorescence Quenching of Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots. Food Anal. Methods 12, 1658–1665 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-019-01505-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-019-01505-8

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