Highly-sensitive organophosphorus pesticide biosensors based on CdTe quantum dots and bi-enzyme immobilized eggshell membranes

Abstract

An optical biosensing method using CdTe quantum dots (QDs) and bi-enzyme-immobilized eggshell membranes for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) has been developed. Increasing amounts of OPs led to a decrease of the enzymatic activity and thus a decrease in the production of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), which can quench the fluorescence of the CdTe QDs. Under the optimum conditions, there was a good linear relationship between the enzyme inhibition percentage and the logarithm of paraoxon or parathion concentration in the range of 1.0 × 10⁻¹¹–1.0 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹. The detection limit (S/N = 3) of the proposed biosensors were as low as 4.30 × 10⁻¹² mol L⁻¹ for paraoxon and 2.47 × 10⁻¹² mol L⁻¹ for parathion. The bi-enzyme-immobilized eggshell membrane demonstrated a long shelf-life of at least 2 months and the results showed good repeatability. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of the OPs in real fruit samples with satisfactory results.