One-pot facile synthesis of bright blue emitting silicon nanoparticles for sensitive detection of luteolin via inner filter effect

Luteolin has gained extensive attention in pharmaceutical and clinical fields owing to their beneficial effects for human health. Accurate detection of luteolin is quite important for drug quality control and clinical medicine research. In this work, novel water dispersible fluorescent silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) were prepared via one-pot hydrothermal approach by using (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APTMS) as silicon source and D -penicillamine as reducing agent. The synthesized SiNPs emitted bright blue fluorescence with a high quantum yield of 44.78% and displayed outstanding optical properties and excellent stability. The fluorescence of the SiNPs could be distinctly quenched by luteolin through inner filter effect (IFE). Based on this, a novel fluorescent method for luteolin detection was developed by using the SiNPs as probe. A linear relationship between the fluorescence quenching efficiency and the concentration of luteolin was obtained from 1 to 100 µM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.24 µM. The proposed method was successfully applied to detect luteolin in urine samples.