High-density assembly of chemiluminescence functionalized gold nanodots on multiwalled carbon nanotubes and their application as biosensing platforms

Novel electrochemiluminescence aptasensor based on AuNPs-ABEI encapsulated TiO2 nanorod for the detection of acetamiprid residues in vegetables

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)@N-(4-aminobutyl)-N-ethylisoluminol (ABEI)@Titanium dioxide nanorods (TiO2NRs) were used as sensing materials to produce a unique encapsulated nanostructure aptasensor for the detection of acetamiprid residues in this work. ABEI, an analog of luminol, was extensively used as an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) reagent. The ECL mechanism of ABEI- hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) system had connections to a number of oxygen-centered free radicals. TiO2NRs improved ECL response with high electron transfer and a specific surface area. AuNPs were easy to biolabel and could catalyze H2O2 to enhance ECL signal. AuNPs were wrapped around TiO2NRs by utilizing the reduction property of ABEI to form wrapped modified nanomaterials. The sulfhydryl-modified aptamer bound to the nanomaterial by forming gold-sulfur (Au-S) bonds. The aptamer selectively bound to its target with the addition of acetamiprid, which caused a considerable decrease in ECL intensity and enabled quantitative detection of acetamiprid. The aptasensor showed good stability, repeatability and specificity with a broad detection range (1×10-2-1×103 nM) and a lower limit of detection (3 pM) for acetamiprid residues in vegetables. Overall, this aptasensor presents a simple and highly sensitive method for ECL detecting acetamiprid, with potential applications in vegetable safety monitoring.

Layered Architectural Fabrication of a Novel Sulfite Nanobiosensor by Encapsulation of Sulfite Oxidase on a Polypyrrole-Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Composite Decorated with Platinum Nanoparticles

The fabrication of a highly selective and ultrasensitive sulfite nanobiosensor based on a layered architectural fabrication aided by the encapsulation of sulfite oxidase (SOx) in Nafion (Naf) matrix on a multiwalled carbon nanotubes-polypyrrole (MWCNTs-PPy) composite decorated with platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) is described. The MWCNTs are deposited in the inner layer on a Pt electrode during electropolymerization of pyrrole (Py), followed by decoration with a PtNPs layer and subsequent encapsulation of SOx with Naf in the third layer capped with a fourth thin PtNPs layer. Images obtained by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) reveal that high-density PtNPs are deposited onto the 3D nanostructured inner MWCNTs-PPy layer and the electrochemical behavior is investigated. A large surface area provided by the incorporation of MWCNTs in the composite and decoration with PtNPs enables increased SOx loading, SOx retention, and substantial improvement in sensing performance. The resulting layered PtNPs/SOx-Naf/PtNPs/MWCNTs-PPy nanobiosensor exhibits a fast response time (within 3 s), a linear calibration range of 20 nmm - 6 m with an excellent sensitivity of 71 µA mm-1  cm-2 and a detection limit of 5.4 nm. The nanobiosensor  was effective in discriminating against common interferants and  was successfully applied to sulfite determination in real samples.

Recent Advances in Carbon Nanodots: A Promising Nanomaterial for Biomedical Applications

Carbon nanodots (CNDs) are an emerging class of nanomaterials and have generated much interest in the field of biomedicine by way of unique properties, such as superior biocompatibility, stability, excellent photoluminescence, simple green synthesis, and easy surface modification. CNDs have been featured in a host of applications, including bioimaging, biosensing, and therapy. In this review, we summarize the latest research progress of CNDs and discuss key advances in our comprehension of CNDs and their potential as biomedical tools. We highlighted the recent developments in the understanding of the functional tailoring of CNDs by modifying dopants and surface molecules, which have yielded a deeper understanding of their antioxidant behavior and mechanisms of action. The increasing amount of in vitro research regarding CNDs has also spawned interest in in vivo practices. Chief among them, we discuss the emergence of research analyzing CNDs as useful therapeutic agents in various disease states. Each subject is debated with reflection on future studies that may further our grasp of CNDs.

Cu(II)-Regulated On-Site Assembly of Highly Chemiluminescent Multifunctionalized Carbon Nanotubes for Inorganic Pyrophosphatase Activity Determination

A novel signal-on chemiluminescence (CL) assay for pyrophosphatase (PPase) activity determination was innovatively developed based on the Cu(II)-regulated on-site assembly of highly chemiluminescent Cu(II), N-(aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI), gold nanodot, and chitosan multifunctionalized carbon nanotubes (Cu(II)/ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs). First, ABEI-functionalized gold nanodots (ABEI-Au) were assembled on the surface of chitosan-modified carbon nanotubes (cs-CNTs) via the reduction of HAuCl₄ with ABEI in a cs-CNT suspension to form ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs. Then, it was found that the catalyst Cu(II) can be selectively, efficiently, and quickly adsorbed onto ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs via the high-affinity interactions between Cu(II) and cs-CNTs to form novel hybrid nanomaterials Cu(II)/ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs. The CL intensity of Cu(II)/ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs was enhanced by about 2 orders of magnitude compared with that of ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs. Furthermore, it was found that in the presence of pyrophosphate ions (PPi), PPi could coordinate with Cu(II) to form a stable PPi-Cu(II) complex and block the assembly of Cu(II)/ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs. After the addition of PPase, PPase could catalyze the hydrolysis of PPi into Pi and release Cu(II) from the PPi-Cu(II) complex. The released free Cu(II) could trigger the on-site assembly of highly chemiluminescent Cu(II)/ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs, resulting in an enhanced CL intensity. The enhanced CL intensity had a good linear relationship with the activity units of PPase ranging from 0.025 to 0.5 U, with a detection limit of 9 mU. The method was employed to monitor the PPase inhibitor efficiently. Cu(II)/ABEI-Au/cs-CNTs with excellent CL may also find more applications in the development of novel CL analytical methods.

Rational design of functional materials guided by single particle chemiluminescence imaging

Chemiluminescence (CL) functionalized materials have found tremendous value in developing CL assays for clinical assays and point-of-care tests. To date, the design and optimization of these materials have mainly relied on conventional trial-and-error procedures in which the ensemble performance is evaluated using conditional experiments. Here we have built an optical microscope to acquire the CL emission from single magnetic-polymer hybrid microbeads functionalized with luminol analogues, and to access the CL kinetics of each individual particle. It was incidentally found that a minor subpopulation of microbeads exhibited intense and delayed CL emission while the majority showed transient and weak emission. Structural characterization of the very same individual particles uncovered that the amorphous multi-core microstructures were responsible for the enhanced encapsulation efficiency and optimized CL reaction kinetics. Guided by this knowledge stemming from single particle CL imaging, the synthesis procedure was rationally optimized to enrich the portion of microbeads with better CL performance, which was validated by both single particle imaging and the significantly improved analytical performance at the ensemble level. The present work not only demonstrates the CL imaging and CL kinetics curve of single microbeads for the first time, but also sets a clear example showing the capability of single particle studies to investigate the structure-activity relationship in a bottom-up manner and to help the rational design of ensemble materials with improved performance.

N-(Aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol)-functionalized gold nanoparticles on cobalt disulfide nanowire hybrids for the non-enzymatic chemiluminescence detection of H2O2

N-(Aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI)-functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on cobalt disulfide nanowires (ABEI/AuNPs/CoS2 NWs) are rapidly synthesized through a microwave-assisted reduction of chloroauric acid (HAuCl4) on CoS2 NWs with ABEI. The obtained nanohybrids with enhanced chemiluminescence are exploited for the non-enzymatic detection of H2O2.

Highly Chemiluminescent Magnetic Beads for Label-Free Sensing of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene

Until now, despite the great success acquired in scientific research and commercial applications, magnetic beads (MBs) have been used for nothing more than a carrier in most cases in bioassays. In this work, highly chemiluminescent magnetic beads containing N-(4-aminobutyl)-N-ethyl isoluminol (ABEI) and Co²⁺ (Co²⁺/ABEI/MBs) were first synthesized via a facile strategy. ABEI and Co²⁺ were grafted onto the surface of carboxylated MBs by virtue of a carboxyl group and electrostatic interaction. The as-prepared Co²⁺/ABEI/MBs exhibited good paramagnetic properties, satisfactory stability, and intense chemiluminescence (CL) emission when reacted with H₂O₂, which was more than 150 times that of ABEI functionalized MBs. Furthermore, it was found that 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) aptamer could attach to the surface of Co²⁺/ABEI/MBs via electrostatic interaction and coordination interaction between TNT aptamer and Co²⁺, leading to a decrease in CL intensity due to the catalytic site Co²⁺ being blocked by the aptamer. In the presence of TNT, TNT would bind strongly with TNT aptamer and detach from the surface of Co²⁺/ABEI/MBs, resulting in partial restoration of the CL signal. Accordingly, label-free aptasensor was developed for the determination of TNT in the range of 0.05-25 ng/mL with a detection limit of 17 pg/mL. This work demonstrates that Co²⁺/ABEI/MBs are easily connected with recognition biomolecules, which are not only magnetic carriers but also direct sensing interfaces with excellent CL activity. It provides a novel CL interface with a magnetic property which easily separates analytes from the sample matrix to construct label-free bioassays.

AgBr nanoparticles/3D nitrogen-doped graphene hydrogel for fabricating all-solid-state luminol-electrochemiluminescence Escherichia coli aptasensors

It is necessary to develop rapid, simple and accurate detection method for Escherichia coli (E. coli) due to its widely distributed pathogenic bacteria. Herein, we prepared AgBr nanoparticles (NPs) anchored 3D nitrogen-doped graphene hydrogel (3DNGH) nanocomposites with an exceptionally large accessible surface by a simple hydrothermal approach. The as-prepared 3DNGH porous nanocomposite not only showed better conductivity than that of 3D graphene due to introducing nitrogen element into graphene framework, but also provided a high loading volume for immobilizing luminol. Meanwhile the anchored AgBr NPs served as the catalyst can effectively enhance the ECL behavior of luminol. And the resulting luminol/AgBr/3DNGH exhibited more excellent ECL performances, which was about 2, 3, 8 times enhanced respectively, comparing to luminol/AgBr/3DGH, luminol/3DNGH and luminol/AgBr/2DNG. Further, the multifunctional nanoarchitecture was used as the all-solid-state ECL platform for fabricating Escherichia coli aptasensors via glutaraldehyde as crosslinking agent between amine-functionalized E. coli aptamer and luminol/AgBr/3DNGH. Based on the steric hindrance mechanism that E.coli can significantly decrease the ECL intensity, the proposed aptasensor displayed a linear response for E.coli in the range from 0.5 to 500 cfu/mL with an extremely low detection limit of 0.17 cfu/mL (S/N). In addition, this ECL aptasensor possessed great advantages including the simple operation process, low-cost and sensitivity, which provided a promising approach for the E.coli detection in biomedical, food detection and environmental analysis.

Acridinium Ester-Functionalized Carbon Nanomaterials: General Synthesis Strategy and Outstanding Chemiluminescence

In this work, three different kinds of acridinium ester (AE)-functionalized carbon nanomaterials, including AE-functionalized carbon nanoparticles (AE-CNPs), AE-functionalized graphene oxide (AE-GO), and AE-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (AE-MCNTs), were synthesized for the first time via a simple, general, and noncovalent strategy. AE molecules were assembled on the surface of carbon nanomaterials by electrostatic interaction, π-π stacking interaction, and amide bond. The synthesized AE-CNPs, AE-GO, and AE-MCNTs with 5.0 × 10(-8) mol·L(-1) of synthetic AE concentration, which was very low compared with other chemiluminescence (CL) reagents such as luminol, N-(aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol), and lucigenin at the concentration of 3.3 × 10(-4) to 5.0 × 10(-6) mol·L(-1) used for the synthesis of CL-functionalized nanomaterials, exhibited outstanding CL activity and good stability. It was found that carbon nanomaterials as nanosized platforms could efficiently immobilize AE molecules and facilitate the formation of OH(•) and O2(•-), leading to strong light emission. Moreover, the CL intensity of AE-GO was the highest, which was about 8.7 and 3.7 times higher than that of AE-CNPs and AE-MCNTs, respectively. This mainly resulted from a difference in the amount of adsorbed AE molecules on the surface of different carbon nanomaterials. Additionally, the prepared AE-CNPs demonstrated excitation-dependent fluorescence property and good fluorescence stability against photobleaching. On the basis of the excellent CL and special fluorescence properties of AE-CNPs, a dual-mode array strategy has been proposed for the first time and seven kinds of transition-metal ions could be successfully discriminated.

A sensitive sandwich-type electrochemical aptasensor for thrombin detection based on platinum nanoparticles decorated carbon nanocages as signal labels

In this work, a novel and sensitive sandwich-type electrochemical aptasensor has been developed for thrombin detection based on platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) decorated carbon nanocages (CNCs) as signal tags. The morphological and compositional of the Pt NPs/CNCs were examined using transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the Pt NPs with about 3-5nm in diameter were well dispersed on the surface of CNCs. The thiolated aptamer was firstly immobilized on the gold electrode to capture the thrombin molecules, and then aptamer functionalized Pt NPs/CNCs nanocomposites were used to fabricate a sandwich sensing platform. Then, the high-content Pt NPs on carbon nanocages acting as hydrogen peroxide-mimicking enzyme catalyzed the reduction of H2O2, resulting in significant electrochemical signal amplification. Differential pulse voltammetry is employed to detect thrombin with different concentrations. Under optimized conditions, the approach provided a good linear response range from 0.05 pM to 20nM with a low detection limit of 10fM. This Pt NPs/CNCs-based aptasensor shows good precision, acceptable stability and reproducibility, which provided a promising strategy for electrochemical aptamer-based detection of other biomolecules.

Converting 2D inorganic-organic ZnSe-DETA hybrid nanosheets into 3D hierarchical nanosheet-based ZnSe microspheres with enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic performances

Engineering two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets into three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structures is one of the great challenges in nanochemistry and materials science. We report a facile and simple chemical conversion route to fabricate 3D hierarchical nanosheet-based ZnSe microspheres by using 2D inorganic-organic hybrid ZnSe-DETA (DETA = diethylenetriamine) nanosheets as the starting precursors. The conversion mechanism involves the controlled depletion of the organic-component (DETA) from the hybrid precursors and the subsequent self-assembly of the remnant inorganic-component (ZnSe). The transformation reaction of ZnSe-DETA nanosheets is mainly influenced by the concentration of DETA in the reaction solution. We demonstrated that this organic-component depletion method could be extended to the synthesis of other hierarchical structures of metal sulfides. In addition, the obtained hierarchical nanosheet-based ZnSe microspheres exhibited outstanding performance in visible light photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange and were highly active for photocatalytic H2 production.

Real-time selective visual monitoring of Hg(2+) detection at ppt level: An approach to lighting electrospun nanofibers using gold nanoclusters

In this work, fluorescent gold nanocluster (AuNC) decorated polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers (AuNC*PCL-NF) for real time visual monitoring of Hg(2+) detection at ppt level in water is demonstrated. The resultant AuNC*PCL-NF exhibiting remarkable stability more than four months at ambient environment and facilitates increased accessibility to active sites resulting in improved sensing performance with rapid response time. The fluorescence changes of AuNC*PCL-NF and their corresponding time dependent spectra, upon introduction of Hg(2+), led to the visual identification of the sensor performance. It is observed that the effective removal of excess ligand (bovine serum albumin (BSA) greatly enhances the surface exposure of AuNC and therefore their selective sensing performance is achieved over competent metal ions such as Cu(2+), Ni(2+), Mn(2+), Zn(2+), Cd(2+), and Pb(2+) present in the water. An exceptional interaction is observed between AuNC and Hg(2+), wherein the absence of excess interrupting ligand makes AuNC more selective towards Hg(2+). The underlying mechanism is found to be due to the formation of Au-Hg amalgam, which was further investigated with XPS, TEM and elemental mapping studies. In short, our findings may lead to develop very efficient fluorescent-based nanofibrous mercury sensor, keeping in view of its stability, simplicity, reproducibility, and low cost.

Sensitive immunosensor for N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide based on N-(aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol)-functionalized gold nanodots/multiwalled carbon nanotube electrochemiluminescence nanointerface

A novel electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was developed for the determination of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) by using N-(aminobutyl)-N-(ethylisoluminol) (ABEI)-functionalized gold nanodots/chitosan/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (ABEI/GNDs/chitosan/COOH-MWCNTs) hybrid as nanointerface. First, ABEI/GNDs/chitosan/COOH-MWCNTs hybrid nanomaterials were grafted onto the surface of ITO electrode via the film-forming property of hybrid nanomaterials. The anti-NT-proBNP antibody was connected to the surface of modified electrode by virtue of amide reaction via glutaraldehyde. The obtained sensing platform showed strong and stable ECL signal. When NT-proBNP was captured by its antibody immobilized on the sensing platform via immunoreaction, the ECL intensity decreased. Direct ECL signal changes were used for the determination of NT-proBNP. The present ECL immunosensor demonstrated a quite wide linear range of 0.01-100 pg/mL. The achieved low detection limit of 3.86 fg/mL was about 3 orders of magnitude lower than that obtained with electrochemistry method reported previously. Because of the simple and fast analysis, high sensitivity and selectivity, and stable and reliable response, the present immunosensor has been successfully applied to quantify NT-proBNP in practical plasma samples. The success of the sensor in this work also confirms that ABEI/GNDs/chitosan/COOH-MWCNTs hybrid is an ideal nanointerface to fabricate a sensing platform. Furthermore, the proposed strategy could be applied in the detection of other clinically important biomarkers.