Abstract
The present article reports a novel biosensor for organophosphorus pesticides based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between nitrogen-doped carbon dots (NC-dots) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The effective NC-dots/AuNPs assembly through the Au–N interaction results in good fluorescence quenching. Active acetylcholinesterase (AChE) catalyzes the hydrolysis of acetylthiocholine into –SH containing thiocholine to replace the NC-dots and trigger the aggregation of AuNPs. In the presence of paraoxon, the activity of AChE is inhibited, and thus preventing the generation of thiocholine, causing fewer NC-dots to be replaced. As a consequence, the fluorescence intensity gradually decreases with increasing amount of paraoxon. This biosensor does not require any complex synthesis or modification, and the results show a wide detection range of from 10−4 to 10−9 g/L with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10−9 g/L (3.6 × 10−12 mol/L). Two linear response regions have been reported with a turning point at about 10−6 g/L and three different factors that would influence the response behavior. These phenomena discussed in detail so as to explain the special response mechanism.
