Resonance light scattering technique for sensitive detection of heparin using plasmonic Cu2-xSe nanoparticles

Abstract

Heparin (Hep) is a mucopolysaccharide sulfate anticoagulant drug widely used in clinic and thus the quantification of Hep concentration is of great significance. In this work, a simple resonance light scattering (RLS) method for the determination of Hep concentration using plasmonic copper selenide nanoparticles (Cu2-xSe NPs) was developed. The positively-charged Cu2-xSe NPs capped by cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) were aggregated by negatively-charged Hep, consequently inducing a significant enhancement in the RLS signals of plasmonic Cu2-xSe NPs. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the increased RLS intensity is linearly correlated with the concentrations of Hep in the range of 0.01–0.60 μg mL−1 (R2 = 0.999), with a low detection limit (LOD) of 4.0 ng mL−1 (3σ). This method offered a simple, sensitive and selective strategy for determining Hep, which can be further successfully applied to quantify Hep in the heparin sodium injection.