Fast detection of melamine using silver nanoparticles capped with l-cysteine functionalized carbon dots

Abstract

Melamine is an additive used fraudulently to enrich foods with nitrogen, particularly in the dairy industry. It is also known as the main metabolite or degradation phytosanitary product of cyromazine. However, the numerous incidents involving living beings in aquatic environments, children and pets fed with products made from melamine in China and certain African countries have led to distrust of melamine in food. In order to ensure strong food safety and security, and good quality of the ecosystem free of melamine, it is important to design a fast, simple, reliable and efficient method for the detection of melamine. For this purpose, silver nanoparticles capped with L-cysteine functionalized carbon dots (cCDs/AgNPs) were designed for the detection of melamine. The results showed that a yellow solution of cCDs/AgNPs turns pink and gradually blue within two minutes of heating at 90 °C in the presence of melamine even at a concentration of 0.1 μg mL⁻¹. This color change reflects the sensitivity of cCDs/AgNPs towards melamine. The investigation of cCDs/AgNPs-based on ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy exhibits good linearity in the range from 0.5 μg mL⁻¹ to 4.5 μg mL⁻¹ for melamine detection, with a detection limit of 0.03 μg mL⁻¹. This method was successfully applied to determine melamine in a milk matrix, suggesting that this method can be applied for food monitoring with the aim of obtaining melamine-free food in dairy products.