Surface plasmon field enhanced upconversion luminescence for the screening and detection of phenolic environmental estrogens

Abstract

The endocrine system's interference caused by environmental estrogens (EEs) residue in food is a topic of public concern. Here, we construct an aptasensor for the sensitive detection of EEs based on luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET). With MoS2 nanosheets acting as the energy acceptor and upconversion luminescence nanoparticles@gold nanoparticles (UCNPs@Au) as the luminescence donor, autofluorescence from food is prevented from interfering. The in-situ deposition of AuNPs not only induces local field enhancement to significantly increase the luminescence intensity of UCNPs, but also conduces to the modification of aptamer through Au-S bond. This aptasensor can respond to multiple estrogens thanks to the choice of a universal aptamer that recognizes phenolic hydroxyl group, and it offers the probability to screen unidentified phenolic estrogens. This method has a high sensitivity and a low limit of detection (LOD), and the satisfactory recovery rates acquired from water and milk samples confirmed its considerable application value.