Coordination-induced decomposition of luminescent gold nanoparticles: sensitive detection of HO and glucose.

The surface inert of luminescent gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) toward biomolecules set a challenge to further exploit their bioanalytical applications using the direct luminescence response. Herein, we report a novel approach to induce significant luminescence quenching of the AuNPs upon the interaction with a metal coordination ligand tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP), providing a strategy for the detection of HO with a limit of detection (LOD) of 14 nM through the reaction between HO and TCEP to protect the luminescence quenching of the AuNPs. Furthermore, this strategy is also extended for sensitive and selective detection of glucose with a LOD of 1.1 μM based on monitoring the production of HO catalyzed from the oxidation of glucose. The highly extendable feature of this strategy can have great potential in the sensitive detection of other biomolecules. Graphical Abstract A facile and extendable strategy has been developed for the sensitive detection of HO and glucose based on the interaction between luminescent gold nanoparticles and TCEP, a metal coordination ligand.