A selective and sensitive nanosensor for fluorescent detection of specific IgEs to purified allergens in human serum

Food allergies are increasingly recognized as a major healthcare concern. In order to sensitively and specifically detect allergies from blood samples of at-risk allergic patients, an effective magnetic fluorescence sensing platform (EMFP) was constructed. The EMFP incorporated hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres (HMNs) to amplify signal from the target IgE in addition to magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to capture and separate the target IgE. The application of EMFP to immunoassays indicated a detection limit of 0.0159 ng mL⁻¹ for low concentration specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE) against purified shellfish Metapenaeus ensis (Meta. E.) allergens, which is 15 fold more sensitive than the commercially available Food and Drug Administration-approved analyzers. Notably, EMFP was specific for the targeted sIgE even with interference by other sIgEs. In addition, the detection time is only 75 min, considerably faster than current commercial ELISA kits for IgE assays. Together, these results demonstrated that EMFP has excellent sensitivity and selectivity for the rapid detection of sIgE. The method thus exhibits potential toward the rapid monitoring of sIgE against Meta. E. allergens in clinical application.

The effective magnetic fluorescence sensing platform was employed to amplify signal and capture target IgE in one step.

Tunable Luminescence and Application in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells of Zn(II)/Hg(II) Complexes: Methyl Substitution-Induced Supramolecular Structures Based on (E)-N-(6-Methoxypyridin-2-ylmethylene)arylamine Derivatives

Using Schiff-base ligands (E)-N-(6-methoxypyridin-2-yl)(CH═NAr) (where Ar = C6H5, L1; 2-MeC6H4, L2; 2,4,6-Me3C6H2, L3), six Zn(II)/Hg(II) complexes, namely, [ZnL1Cl2] (Zn1), [HgL1Cl2] (Hg1), [ZnL2Cl2] (Zn2), [HgL2Cl2] (Hg2), [ZnL3Cl2] (Zn3), and [HgL3Cl2] (Hg3) have been synthesized under solvothermal conditions. The structures of six complexes have been established by X-ray single-crystal analysis and further physically characterized by EA, FT-IR, (1)H NMR, and ESI-MS. The crystal structures of these complexes indicate that noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonds, C-H···Cl, and π···π stacking, play essential roles in constructing the resulting supramolecular structures (1D for Hg3; 2D for Zn2, Hg2; 3D for Zn1, Hg1, and Zn3). Upon irradiation with UV light, the emission of complexes Zn1-Zn3 and Hg1-Hg3 could be finely tuned from green (480-540 nm) in the solid state to blue (402-425 nm) in acetonitrile solution. It showed that the ligand and metal cation can influence the structures and luminescence properties of complexes such as emission intensities and maximum wavelengths. Since these ligands and complexes could compensate for the absorption of N719 in the low-wavelength region of the visible spectrum and reduce charge recombination of the injected electron, the ligands L1-L3 and complexes Zn3/Hg3 were employed to prepare cosensitized dye-sensitized solar cells devices for investigating the influences of the electron-donating group and coordination on the DSSCs performance. Compared to DSSCs only being sensitized by N719, these prepared ligands and complexes chosen to cosensitize N719 in solar cell do enhanced its performance by 11-41%. In particular, a DSSC using L3 as cosensitizer displays better photovoltaic performance with a short circuit current density of 18.18 mA cm(-2), corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 7.25%. It is much higher than that for DSSCs only sensitized by N719 (5.14%).

A Zn(ii) coordination polymer and its photocycloaddition product: syntheses, structures, selective luminescence sensing of iron(iii) ions and selective absorption of dyes

Nanospheres of a Zn(ii) complex are used to selectively sense iron(iii) ions while its photocycloaddition product can selectively absorb dyes.