Highly water-soluble and biocompatible hyaluronic acid functionalized upconversion nanoparticles as ratiometric nanoprobes for label-free detection of nitrofuran and doxorubicin

Antibiotic detection is crucial and challenging because the widespread consumption of antibiotics have shown extensive harmful effects on food, environment and human health. Here, we propose highly water-soluble and biocompatible hyaluronic acid (HYA) functionalized upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) for ratiometric detection of multiple antibiotics possibly within 1 min. The UV upconversion luminescence (UCL) from UCNPs was significantly quenched by nitrofurazone/nitrofurantoin, and blue UCL was quenched by doxorubicin, while red UCL remained unchanged for internal reference. The UCNPs-HYA nanoprobes exhibit excellently sensitive and selective nitrofurazone (NFZ), nitrofurantoin (NFT) and doxorubicin (DOX) detection in linear range of 2.5–100 μM, 2.5–80 μM, and 2.5–200 μM with the LOD at 0.27 μM (55 μg/kg), 0.20 μM (48 μg/kg) and 0.17 μM (97 μg/kg), respectively. The nanoprobes achieved detecting real samples of NFZ in lake water, liquid milk and chicken meat with satisfactory results, and UCL bioimaging of doxorubicin sensing in HeLa cells.