A highly selective turn-on fluorescent and naked-eye colorimetric sensor for cyanide detection in food samples and its application in imaging of living cells

By Qingfen Niu, Linxin Lan, Tianduo Li, Zongrang Guo, T. Jiang, Zhiyi Zhao, Zhenshuai Feng, Jinying Xi. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2018

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Abstract A novel highly selective oligothiophene-benzothiazole based sensor 3TBN has been developed for “naked-eye” colorimetric and fluorescent “turn-on” detection of cyanide in aqueous DMSO media. The sensor 3TBN exhibited distinct visual color and spectral changes in response to cyanide anion (CN−) over other tested anions. A good linear relationship was clearly observed between the fluorescence enhancement of the sensor 3TBN and the concentration of CN− in the wide range of 0–40 μM with a low detection limit of 0.46 μM. The sensing mechanism based on the nucleophilic addition reaction of the sensor with CN− on the cyanovinyl electrophilic C C group has been well confirmed. Economically viable paper-based colorimetric test strips of 3TBN were fabricated to effectively detect the CN− ions in water. More importantly, as a cost-effective and selective fluorescent sensor, the sensor 3TBN has been successfully employed for detection of CN− in food samples and fluorescence bioimaging in living HeLa cells.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Spectroscopy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4420ddf47677da4fc851a2e058e5330d6d5ecc2e