Monodisperse functionalized GO for high-performance sensing and bioimaging of Cu2+ through synergistic enhancement effect

• Published in: Talanta (Oxford) Vol. 224; p. 121786
• Main Authors: Sun, Peng, Xu, Kaibing, Guang, Shanyi, Xu, Hongyao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.03.2021
• Subjects: Bioimaging; cells; chemical reactions; correlation; Danio rerio; Deaggregation; design; detection limit; fluorescent dyes; Graphene oxide; hydrogen bonding; hydrophilicity; metal ions; monitoring; Optical stability; photostability; sewage; Synergy; Trace Cu2+ response; water; Bioimaging; Graphene oxide; Synergy; Trace Cu2+ response; Optical stability; Deaggregation
• ISSN: 0039-9140; 1873-3573; 1873-3573
• DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.121786

The metal ion fluorescence probes based on chemical reactions triggered by specific metal ions is characterized by high selectivity. However, they are also subject to inherent limitations, such as easy aggregation under water solution, poor optical stability, and long response time. In order to solve these problems, a simple and effective method was studied. The specific design is as follows. Fluorescence probe RACD is assembled onto a single layer graphene oxide (GO) via π-π interaction and hydrogen bonding to prepare RACD functionlized graphene oxide RACD/GO. The experimental results show that the resulting RACD/GO possesses very well monodispersion, hydrophilicity and photostability, particularly reduce the aggregation degree of RACD owing to π-π effect. Simultaneously, it was found that due to the strong synergy between GO and RACD, the response time, selectivity, anti-interference ability, detection sensitivity, detection limit and bioimaging ability of RACD/GO were significantly improved compared with RACD. The resulting RACD/GO not only possesses very well photostability, multiple repeated cycles, but also have been triumphantly put into the monitoring Cu2+ of environmental water, sewage, cells and zebrafish specimens in practice. The detection limit is as low as 1.76 nM, and the correlation coefficient is 0.9998. [Display omitted] •A design method of nano fluorescent probe based on graphene oxide (GO) assembly strategy is proposed.•Probe RACD is assembled onto single layer GO via π-π interaction and hydrogen bonding to prepare nanoprobe RACD/GO.•Compared with RACD, the obtained RACD/GO has good light stability, monodispersity and hydrophilicity.•Due to the synergy of GO and RACD, the detection and bioimaging performance of RACD/GO is better than that of RACD.