Trypsin stabilized copper nanoclusters as a highly sensitive and selective probe for fluorescence sensing of morin and temperature

Abstract

Herein, a platform for sensitive fluorescence sensing of morin was developed based on the copper nanoclusters, which was carried out by using a one-pot method. The copper nanoclusters (Trypsin@Cu NCs) were fabricated through CuCl2 as a metal precursor, trypsin as a protective agent and hydrazine hydrate as a reducing agent. The Trypsin@Cu NCs exhibited blue fluorescence under the excitation wavelength of 378 nm. Using Trypsin@Cu NCs as the patterned nanosensors, the fluorescent “turn off” phenomenon was developed for the measurement of morin with the linear decline of emissive intensity at 459 nm. The fluorescence quenching reason was subjected to the static quenching and inner filter effect. Under the optimal conditions, an excellent linear response between ln(F0/F) of Trypsin@Cu NCs and morin amounts in the light of the range of 0.5–150 μM, and the limit of detection was 0.083 μM. Moreover, this proposed nanosensor could be applied for the sensing of temperature. This sensing method was displayed to be a practical determination system for the measurement of morin in real samples, which could open new horizons to develop novel detection models for morin.