Label-free fluorescence polarization detection of pyrophosphate based on 0D/1D fast transformation of CdTe nanostructures

Abstract

A novel and label-free fluorescence polarization (FP) method for the determination of pyrophosphate (PPi) is developed based on the change in FP signals during fast reversible transformation between CdTe zero-dimensional (0D) nanocrystals (NCs) and one-dimensional (1D) nanorods (NRs) induced by addition of PPi. Under optimum conditions, the FP ratio was linearly proportional to the logarithm of the concentration of PPi between 2.0 × 10⁻⁵ and 1.0 × 10⁻⁹ M with a detection limit of 8.0 × 10⁻¹⁰ M. The developed method, with high signal selectivity and stability, was successfully applied to the detection of PPi in human urine samples.