Graphene oxide nanoribbon catalysis of gold nanoreaction and its application to SERS quantitative analysis of ultratrace glucose

Abstract

Catalysis of four nanostructures, including graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONR), graphene oxide, N-doped carbon quantum dot and Ca-doped carbon quantum dot is examined on the reaction HAuCl4–trisodium citrate to form nanogold (AuNP). GONR exhibited strongest catalysis and appeared a SERS peak at 1615 cm−1 in the presence of Victoria blue 4R molecular probes in the formed AuNP sol substrate. Upon addition of 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (MPBA), it adsorbs on GONR to form MPBA–GONR conjugates that caused the SERS peak decreasing due to its catalysis decreasing. Upon addition of glucose, it reacts with MPBA to form MPBA–glucose complex to increase the SERS peak linearly owing to GONR catalysis recovering. The increased SERS signal (ΔI) is linear to glucose concentration in the range of 0.33–5.33 nM, with a detection limit of 0.13 nM. Thus, a new and highly sensitive SERS quantitative analysis method is established for detection of glucose, based on GONR catalytic amplification.