Paper-based sensor for visual detection of Ag+ based on a “turn-off-on” fluorescent design

All-in-one strategy for the nano-engineering of paper-based bifunctional fluorescent platform for robustly-integrated real-time monitoring of food and drinking-water safety

Cu2+ contamination and food spoilage raise food and drinking water safety issues, posing a serious threat to human health. Besides, Cu2+ and H2S levels indicate excess Cu2+-caused diseases and protein-containing food spoilage. Herein, a coumarin-containing bifunctional paper-based fluorescent platform integrated with a straightforward smartphone color recognition app is developed by an all-in-one strategy. The proposed fluorescent materials can simultaneously detect Cu2+ and H2S for on-demand food and drinking water safety monitoring at home. Specifically, a coumarin-derived fluorescence sensor (referred to as CMIA) with a low detection limit (0.430 μM) and high-selectivity/-sensitivity for Cu2+ is synthesized through a simple one-step route and then loaded onto commercially used cellulose fiber filter paper to engineer a biomass-based fluorescent material (CMIA-FP). The CMIA-FP offers user-friendly, high-precision, fast-responsive, and real-time visual monitoring of Cu2+. Moreover, CMIA forms a chemically stable complex with Cu2+, loaded onto filter paper to prepare another biomass-based fluorescent platform (CMIA-CU-FP) for visual real-time monitoring of H2S. Based on the exquisite composition design, the proposed dual-function paper-based fluorescent materials equipped with a smartphone color recognition program concurrently realize fast, accurate, and easy real-time monitoring of Cu2+ in drinking water and H2S in chicken breast-/shrimp-spoilage, demonstrating an effective detection strategy for the Cu2+ and H2S monitoring and presenting the new type of biomass-based platforms for concentrated reflection of drinking water and food safety.

Iodine Adsorption-Desorption-Induced Structural Transformation and Improved Ag+ Turn-On Luminescent Sensing Performance of a Nonporous Eu(III) Metal-Organic Framework

Posttreatment of pristine metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with suitable vapor may be an effective way to regulate their structures and properties but has been less explored. Herein, we report an interesting example in which a crystalline nonporous Eu(III)-MOF was transferred to a porous amorphous MOF (aMOF) via iodine vapor adsorption-desorption posttreatment, and the resulting aMOF showed improved turn-on sensing properties with respect to Ag+ ions. The crystalline Eu-MOF, namely, Eu-IPDA, was assembled from Eu(III) and 4,4'-{4-[4-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)phenyl]pyridine-2,6-diyl}dibenzoic acid (H2IPDA) and exhibited a two-dimensional (2D) coordination network based on one-dimensional secondary building blocks. The close packing of the 2D networks gives rise to a three-dimensional supramolecular framework without any significant pores. Interestingly, the nonporous Eu-IPDA could absorb iodine molecules when Eu-IPDA crystals were placed in iodine vapor at 85 °C, and the adsorption capacity was 1.90 g/g, which is comparable to those of many MOFs with large BET surfaces. The adsorption of iodine is attributed to the strong interactions among the iodine molecule, the carboxy group, and the N-containing group and leads to the amorphization of the framework. After immersion of the iodine-loaded Eu-IPDA in EtOH, approximately 89.7% of the iodine was removed, resulting in a porous amorphous MOF, denoted as a-Eu-IPDA. In addition, the remaining iodine in the a-Eu-IPDA framework causes strong luminescent quenching in the fluorescence emission region of the Eu(III) center when compared with that in Eu-IPDA. The luminescence intensity of a-Eu-IPDA in water suspensions was significantly enhanced when Ag+ ions were added, with a detection limit of 4.76 × 10-6 M, which is 1000 times that of pristine Eu-IPDA. It also showed strong anti-interference ability over many common competitive metal ions and has the potential to sense Ag+ in natural water bodies and traditional Chinese medicine preparations. A mechanistic study showed that the interactions between Ag+ and the absorbed iodine, the carboxylate group, and the N atoms all contribute to the sensing performance of a-Eu-IPDA.

Quantum dots-based "chemical tongue" for the discrimination of short-length Aβ peptides

A "chemical tongue" is proposed based on thiomalic acid-capped quantum dots (QDs) with signal enrichment provided by excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy for the determination of close structural analogs-short-length amyloid β (Aβ) peptides related to Alzheimer's disease. Excellent discrimination is obtained by principal component analysis (PCA) for seven derivatives: Aβ1-16, Aβ4-16, Aβ4-9, Aβ5-16, Aβ5-12, Aβ5-9, Aβ12-16. Detection of Aβ4-16, Aβ4-16, and Aβ5-9 in binary and ternary mixtures performed by QDs-based chemical tongue using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) provided perfect 100% accuracy for the two studied peptides (Aβ4-16 and Aβ4-16), while for the third one (Aβ5-9) it was slightly lower (97.9%). Successful detection of Aβ4-16 at 1 pmol/mL (1.6 ng/mL) suggests that the detection limit of the proposed method for short-length Aβ peptides can span nanomolar concentrations. This result is highly promising for the development of simple and efficient methods for sequence recognition in short-length peptides and better understanding of mechanisms at the QD-analyte interface.

Recent Advances and Applications in Paper-Based Devices for Point-of-Care Testing

Point-of-care testing (POCT), as a portable and user-friendly technology, can obtain accurate test results immediately at the sampling point. Nowadays, microfluidic paper-based analysis devices (μPads) have attracted the eye of the public and accelerated the development of POCT. A variety of detection methods are combined with μPads to realize precise, rapid and sensitive POCT. This article mainly introduced the development of electrochemistry and optical detection methods on μPads for POCT and their applications on disease analysis, environmental monitoring and food control in the past 5 years. Finally, the challenges and future development prospects of μPads for POCT were discussed.

Hospitals and Laboratories on Paper-Based Sensors: A Mini Review

With characters of low cost, portability, easy disposal, and high accuracy, as well as bulky reduced laboratory equipment, paper-based sensors are getting increasing attention for reliable indoor/outdoor onsite detection with nonexpert operation. They have become powerful analysis tools in trace detection with ultra-low detection limits and extremely high accuracy, resulting in their great popularity in medical detection, environmental inspection, and other applications. Herein, we summarize and generalize the recently reported paper-based sensors based on their application for mechanics, biomolecules, food safety, and environmental inspection. Based on the biological, physical, and chemical analytes-sensitive electrical or optical signals, extensive detections of a large number of factors such as humidity, pressure, nucleic acid, protein, sugar, biomarkers, metal ions, and organic/inorganic chemical substances have been reported via paper-based sensors. Challenges faced by the current paper-based sensors from the fundamental problems and practical applications are subsequently analyzed; thus, the future directions of paper-based sensors are specified for their rapid handheld testing.

Highly selective and rapid detection of silver ions by using a "turn on" non-fluorescent cysteine stabilized gold nanocluster probe

Cysteine is widely used as a stabilizer for the preparation of fluorescent gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) with different fluorescence properties. Herein, by using cysteine as a stabilizer and controlling the synthesis conditions, a new non-fluorescent cysteine stabilized gold nanocluster (Cys-Au NCs) probe was prepared and a new strategy for "turning on" the fluorescence of the Cys-Au NCs was studied for rapid and selective detection of silver ions. In this strategy, the addition of silver ions to non-fluorescent Cys-Au NCs solution could quickly induce a visible fluorescence "turn on" phenomenon in 30 s. Further studies indicated that this fluorescence "turn on" phenomenon is specific for silver ions and the "turn on" fluorescence intensity has a linear relationship with the amount of silver ions in the range from 3.0 to 30.0 μM. Therefore, the non-fluorescent Cys-Au NCs were applied to the detection of silver ions in environmental water samples and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.26 μM was obtained. This research sheds light on new applications of Au NCs and proposes a simple, rapid, sensitive, and visual method for the detection of metal ions.