Dong Xing, Tian Yixing, Ai Fengxiang, Wei Dali, Yin Hongyi, Zhu Nuanfei, Zhang Zhen, Zhao Hongjun
School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Quzhou People's Hospital, The Quzhou Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Quzhou 324000, China.
Inorg Chem. 2024 Sep 2;63(35):16264-16273. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c02161. Epub 2024 Aug 19.
Benefiting from easy visualization and simultaneous detection of multiple targets, fluorescence microbeads are commonly used as fluorescence-sensing elements to detect pollutants in the environment. However, the application of fluorescence microbead-based sensor arrays is still limited because fluorescence dyes always suffer from self-quenching, photobleaching, and spectral overlap. Herein, three kinds of gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) were assembled with polystyrene microspheres (PS NPs) by electrostatic interaction to prepare fluorescence microbeads (PS-Au NCs), developing a sensor array for the simultaneous analysis of multiple metal ions. In this work, different PS-Au NCs showed an enhancing or quenching fluorescence response to various metal ions, owing to distinct binding capacities. Combined with the recognition algorithm from linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), this sensor assay could realize single-component and multicomponent qualitative detection for 8 kinds of heavy metal ions (HMIs) including Cu, Co, Pb, Hg, and Ce. Particularly, the large surface area of PS NPs could provide a direct reaction microenvironment to improve the efficiency of the detection process. Meanwhile, the fluorescence property of Au NCs could also be enhanced by a partially effective aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect to give better fluorescence signal output. Under optimal conditions, 8 kinds of heavy metals and their multicomponent mixtures could be identified at concentrations as low as 0.62 μM. Meanwhile, the analytical performance of this sensor assay in water samples was also verified, meeting the requirement of actual analysis. This study provides a great potential and practical example of single-batch, multicomponent identification for HMIs.
得益于易于可视化和同时检测多个目标，荧光微珠通常用作荧光传感元件来检测环境中的污染物。然而，基于荧光微珠的传感器阵列的应用仍然有限，因为荧光染料总是存在自猝灭、光漂白和光谱重叠的问题。在此，通过静电相互作用将三种金纳米簇（Au NCs）与聚苯乙烯微球（PS NPs）组装在一起，制备了荧光微珠（PS-Au NCs），开发了一种用于同时分析多种金属离子的传感器阵列。在这项工作中，不同的PS-Au NCs对各种金属离子表现出增强或猝灭的荧光响应，这归因于不同的结合能力。结合线性判别分析（LDA）和层次聚类分析（HCA）的识别算法，这种传感器检测方法可以实现对包括铜、钴、铅、汞和铈在内的8种重金属离子（HMIs）的单组分和多组分定性检测。特别地，PS NPs的大表面积可以提供直接的反应微环境，以提高检测过程的效率。同时，Au NCs的荧光性质也可以通过部分有效的聚集诱导发光（AIE）效应得到增强，从而给出更好的荧光信号输出。在最佳条件下，可以在低至0.62 μM的浓度下识别8种重金属及其多组分混合物。同时，还验证了该传感器检测方法在水样中的分析性能，满足实际分析的要求。这项研究为HMIs的单批次、多组分识别提供了一个极具潜力的实际范例。
