Efficient detection for Nitrofurazone based on novel Ag2S QDs/g-C3N4 fluorescent probe

A comprehensive review on the pretreatment and detection methods of nitrofurans and their metabolites in animal-derived food and environmental samples

In recent years, the residues of nitrofurans (NFs) and their metabolites in animal-derived food and environmental samples have gained widespread attention. The parent drugs and their metabolites have displayed significant toxicity to human health including carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic effects, leading to banned in animal husbandry in many countries. Hence, monitoring the residues of NFs is necessary to guarantee public health and ecological security. This review aims to summarize and assess the structural properties, residue status, sample pretreatment methods (liquid-liquid extraction, solid-phase extraction, Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe (QuEChERS), and field-assisted extraction), and detection methods (chromatographic analysis, immunoassay, and some innovative detection methods) for NFs and their metabolites in animal-derived food and environmental samples. This paper provides a detailed reference and discussion for the analysis of NFs and their metabolites, which can effectively promote the establishment of innovative detection methods for NFs and their metabolites residues.

Advances on chalcogenide quantum dots-based sensors for environmental pollutants monitoring

Water contamination represents a significant ecological impact with global consequences, contributing to water scarcity worldwide. The presence of several pollutants, including heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and pathogens, in water resources underscores a pressing global concern, prompting the European Union (EU) to establish a Water Watch List to monitor the level of these substances. Nowadays, the standard methods used to detect and quantify these contaminants are mainly liquid or gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC/GC-MS). While these methodologies offer precision and accuracy, they require expensive equipment and experienced technicians, and cannot be used on the field. In this context, chalcogenide quantum dots (QDs)-based sensors have emerged as promising, user-friendly, practical, and portable tools for environmental monitoring. QDs are semiconductor nanocrystals that possess excellent properties, and have demonstrated versatility across various sensor types, such as fluorescent, electrochemical, plasmonic, and colorimetric ones. This review summarizes recent advances (2019-2023) in the use of chalcogenide QDs for environmental sensing, highlighting the development of sensors capable of detect efficiently heavy metals, anions, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, endocrine disrupting compounds, organic dyes, toxic gases, nitroaromatics, and pathogens.

Double-emitting lanthanide metal-organic frameworks composed of Eu/Tb doping and ratiometric fluorescence detection of nitrofurazone

Lanthanide metal-organic frameworks (LnMOFs) have substantial potential in luminescence due to their unique antenna effect. Nevertheless, the single emission is susceptible to pseudo-signals caused by external environmental conditions, which significantly threaten the accurate measurement of the concentration. In this case, we prepared a dual-emission fluorescent probe {EuxTb1-x(NH2-BDC)3(DMF)4·2DMF}∞ (NH2-BDC = Diaminoterephthalic acid, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide). The stable dual-emission signal provides a superior signal output for detecting nitrofurazone (NFZ), which is detected by the probe with excellent fluorescence for 0-10 μM NFZ. In the investigation of the detection mechanism, it is speculated that NFZ incorporates with probe to generate a novel complex. Furthermore, The UV absorption curves of the novel complexes and NFZ overlap extensively with those of the probe. The addition of NFZ attenuates the characteristic luminescence of Eu and Tb by competing for the absorption of the excitation light of the probe. The probe has exhibits rapid response, excellent sensitivity, visual detection and a meagre detection limit (LOD = 0.013 μM) for the detection of NFZ. This work not only broadens the application of LnMOFs in the field of ratiometric detection but also provides a favorable fluorescent probe for the quantitative detection of NFZ.

Plasmonic coupling-boosted photothermal nanoreactor for efficient solar light-driven photocatalytic water splitting

Photothermal nanoreactor with rapid charge transfer and improved spectral utilization is a key point in photocatalysis research. Herein, silver sulfide quantum dots (Ag2S QDs) were coating on the surface of porous graphitic carbon nitride nano vesicles (PCNNVs) to form Ag2S/PCNNVs nanoreactors by a simple calcination method for obtaining efficient photothermal-assisted photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) evolution under simulated/real sunlight irradiation. In particularly, the as-prepared optimal 3% Ag2S/PCNNVs sample exhibited the H2 production rate of 34.8 mmol h-1 g-1, which was 3.5 times higher than that of bare PCNNVs. The enhancement of photothermal-assisted activity over the Ag2S/PCNNVs composite system is mainly attributed to the coupling of the photothermal conversion performance of Ag2S QDs and the thermal insulation performance of PCNNVs based on the plasmonic coupling-boosted photothermal nanoreactor. This study presents a promising strategy for the development of high-efficient photothermal-assisted photocatalysts.

A fluorescence nanoprobe of N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine capped CdTe QDs for sensitive detection of nitrofurazone

A method was established for detecting the content of nitrofurazone (NFZ) by fluorescence quenching of N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) coated cadmium telluride quantum dots (CdTe QDs). By means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and multispectral methods such as fluorescence and ultraviolet visible spectra (UV-vis), the synthesized CdTe QDs were characterized. The quantum yield (φ) of CdTe QDs was measured as 0.33 by reference method. The CdTe QDs had a better stability, the RSD of fluorescence intensity was 1.51% in three months. NFZ quenching the emission light of CdTe QDs was observed. The analyses of Stern-Volmer and time-resolved fluorescence suggested the quenching was static. The binding constants (K_a) between NFZ and CdTe QDs were 1.14 × 10⁴ (293 K), 0.74 × 10⁴ (303 K) and 0.51 × 10⁴ (313 K) L mol^-1. The hydrogen bond or van der Waals force was the dominated binding force between NFZ and CdTe QDs. The interaction was further characterized by UV-vis absorption as well as Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR). Using fluorescence quenching effect, a quantitative determination of NFZ was carried out. The optimal experimental conditions were studied and determined as following: pH was 7 and contact time was 10 min. The effects of reagent addition sequence, temperature and the foreign substances including some metals (Mg²⁺; Zn²⁺; Ca²⁺; K⁺; Cu²⁺), glucose, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and furazolidone on the determination were studied. There was a high correlation between the concentration of NFZ (0.40 - 39.63 μg mL^-1) and F₀/F with the standard curve F₀/F = 0.0262c + 0.9910 (r = 0.9994). The detection limit (LOD) reached 0.04 μg mL^-1 (3S₀/S). The contents of NFZ in beef and bacteriostatic liquid were detected. The recovery of NFZ was 95.13% - 103.03% and RSD was 0.66% - 1.37% (n = 5).

Selection and truncation of aptamers as fluorescence sensing platforms for selective and sensitive detection of nitrofurazone

Nitrofurazone (NFZ) is an antibiotic banned in many countries, as its residue seriously harms the human body. Herein, anti-NFZ aptamers were selected and identified based on the magnetic bead SELEX technique using a ssDNA library with a full length of 90 nucleotides (nt). Five full sequence candidate aptamers (NFZ8, NFZ24, NFZ28, NFZ34, and NFZ70) were obtained by secondary structure analysis. We optimized the entire sequence to obtain a truncated aptamer, a 16 nt sequence (NFZ8-1:5'-GTTCTATTGAAAAAAC-3') that showed the highest affinity for NFZ (K_d = 76.11 nM). The binding site of NFZ and aptamer NFZ8-1 was found to be "GAA" by molecular docking. In addition, utilizing the most special truncated aptamer NFZ8-1 as the identification probe, a graphene oxide fluorescent aptasensor is an innovative for the detection of NFZ residue that showed a wide linear reach from 1.25 to 160 ng/mL and a low limit of detection of 1.13 ng/mL. In the actual water environment sample detection, the recovery rate ranged from 95.21 to 113.66%, and the coefficient of variation ranged from 3.53 to 11.24%. These results demonstrate that the NFZ-truncated aptamer applied to the aptasensor provides a novel methodology for recognizing NFZ residues.

Tuning the optical properties of high quantum-yield g-C3N4 with the inclusion of ZnS via FRET for high electron-hole recombination

Luminescent polymeric graphitic composites have the potential to be efficient energy converters for sophisticated displays and light sources. Thermal condensation is used to synthesize g-C₃N₄-ZnS composites. The XRD, and FTIR analyses confirmed the synthesis of the pure host, filler, and composites. FESEM, and TEM images revealed that the ZnS nanosheets were evenly distributed over the g-C₃N₄ sheets. As a result of ZnS incorporation, the melting point of g-C₃N₄ has been raised to 748.5 °C, and the thermal stability of gZ has been increased by 27 %. The optimized gZ15 band gap is determined to be 2.98 eV with a crystallite size of 4.2 nm and a micro stain of 35.42 × 10^-3. With a purity of 63.4 %, gZ15 demonstrated a significant rate of recombination in the blue region. gZ15 has a high PLQY of 98 % and a FRET efficiency of 92%. All of the improved properties demonstrated that polymeric g-C₃N₄-ZnS was the optimum materials for usage in the active or emissive layer of optoelectronic devices.

Gadolinium molybdate decorated graphitic carbon nitride composite: highly visualized detection of nitrofurazone in water samples

In this work, a graphitic carbon nitride/gadolinium molybdate (g-C₃N₄/Gd₂MoO₆) composite manufactured glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was used to detect nitrofurazone (NFZ) at the trace level. A quick and inexpensive electrochemical sensor for NFZ analysis is described in this paper. The material structure and properties were determined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The GCE/g-C₃N₄/Gd₂MoO₆ electrode was studied using cyclic voltammetry and amperometry. The electrocatalytic studies of the GCE/g-C₃N₄/Gd₂MoO₆ electrode showed significantly improved detection of NFZ. The electrocatalytic studies of the GCE/g-C₃N₄/Gd₂MoO₆ electrode was significantly improved for the detection of NFZ than bare GCE, GCE/g-C₃N₄, and GCE/Gd₂MoO₆ modified electrodes. The linear response and the detection limit of NFZ were 0.006 μM (S/N = 3) and 0.02-2000 μM, respectively. The electrode sensitivity was identified as 2.057 μA μM^-1 cm^-2 under ideal experimental conditions. The modified electrode was able to detect NFZ even when there were 500-fold as many interfering ions present. The practical applicability of the electrode was tested in a variety of water samples, with satisfactory results. Overall, the NFZ sensor demonstrated satisfactory repeatability, stability, and reproducibility. Meanwhile, it has proven to be a reliable, stable, and practical platform for the analysis of NFZ in various water samples, with acceptable recoveries.

Immunosensor of Nitrofuran Antibiotics and Their Metabolites in Animal-Derived Foods: A Review

Nitrofuran antibiotics have been widely used in the prevention and treatment of animal diseases due to the bactericidal effect. However, the residual and accumulation of their metabolites in vivo can pose serious health hazards to both humans and animals. Although their usage in feeding and process of food-derived animals have been banned in many countries, their metabolic residues are still frequently detected in materials and products of animal-derived food. Many sensitive and effective detection methods have been developed to deal with the problem. In this work, we summarized various immunological methods for the detection of four nitrofuran metabolites based on different types of detection principles and signal molecules. Furthermore, the development trend of detection technology in animal-derived food is prospected.