Template protection of gold nanoclusters for the detection of organophosphorus pesticides

Abstract

The simple and highly sensitive detection of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) is urgently required. Here, we have developed a sensing method for OPs based on the trypsin digestion of the template of bovine serum albumin-stabilized gold nanoclusters (BSA-AuNCs), thus leading to BSA-AuNC aggregation and quenching of their fluorescence. While the activity of trypsin was irreversibly inhibited in the presence of OPs, the fluorescence quenching efficiency of BSA-AuNCs decreased. Under the optimal conditions, the logarithm of OPs concentration was proportional to inhibition efficiency in the range of 0.1 ng mL⁻¹ to 5 μg mL⁻¹. The detection limit of OPs reached 0.037 ng mL⁻¹. What's more, the sensing method was successfully utilized in the detection of OPs in real food samples. These results indicated that the OPs sensor has potential applications in the safety and monitoring of agricultural samples.