Peptide self-assembly (PSA) nanoparticle-based nanoscale organic framework (PSAOF): A smart photochemical assays for pyrethroid

Abstract

Profiting from the unique photoluminescence features, covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been developed vigorously as an advanced chemical sensing platform, whereas their selectivity and sensitivity remain a big challenge. Herein, a peptide self-assembly (PSA) nanoparticle-based nanoscale organic framework (PSAOF) was constructed through a novel modulation strategy for sensing pesticides. The as-constructed nanoscale PSAOF was synthetized at room temperature using metal ion-doped PSA with an amino group and aldehyde-containing 1,3,5-benzenetricarbaldehyde (BTCA) as building blocks, which meets the requirements of low toxicity and eco-friendliness. In addition, the direct integration of PAS nanoparticles into the organic frameworks enables it to reduce steric hindrance of recognition and enhance the interfacial contact of the target, thus improving the sensitivity. As proof-of-principle, lambda-cyhalothrin (LCY), one of the typical pyrethroid, is selected as a model target to demonstrate the superiority of nanoscale PSAOF in trace amount monitoring. The nanoscale PSAOF exhibited a low detection limit of 0.17 μg/L to LCY over the range of 0.5–50 μg/L (R2=0.9596), and the recoveries percentage in real samples was estimated to be 97.90%−104.02%. In conjunction with the smartphone-facilitated photochemical sensing device, on-site detection of pesticides is established, paving the way for the application of new organic frameworks in high-sensitive detection.