Induced fluorescent enhancement of protein-directed synthesized gold nanoclusters for selective and sensitive detection of flame retardants

Abstract

Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), typical toxic and hazardous pollutants, are called for new detection approaches to avoid laborious synthetic procedures and large and expensive instruments. Hence, a novel fluorescent probe was constructed for quantitative detection of OPFRs via heightening the fluorescence of acetylcholinesterase synthesized gold nanoclusters (AChE–AuNCs). The as-prepared AChE–AuNCs exhibited high fluorescence emission at about 398 nm with the average particle size of about 1.60 nm. When the AChE–AuNCs was applied to the proposed fluorescent detection, excellent sensitivity with wide linear range (50–1000 ng L−1) and low detection limit (30 ng L−1) for TClPP with the response time less than 1 h were achieved. The fluorescent probe could be extended to detect other three types of OPFRs (TEP, TPHP, and TBOEP) and the target pollutants could be detectable in the presence of halogenated flame retardants. The mechanism might be mainly contributed by the interaction between OPFRs and AChE–AuNCs restricting internal vibration consumption of their capping ligands. The proposed detection approach could be easily operated and was not involved with other intermediate products. Therefore, AChE–AuNCs could be a promising fluorescent probe for rapid, selective and sensitive detection of OPFRs and even in the practical application.