Capillary-based fluorescence microsensor with polyoxometalates as nanozyme for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of artemisinin

A novel capillary-based fluorescence microsensor for artemisinin was developed with functional polyoxometalates (POMs) as nanozyme by a layer-by-layer self-assembly strategy. Vanadomolybdophosphoric heteropoly acid ( H 5 PMo 10 V 2 O 40 , PMoV 2 ) and tungstophosphoric heteropoly acid ( Na 5 PW 11 O 39 Cu, PW 11 Cu) with high peroxidase-like activity were synthesized and immobilized on capillary to catalyze artemisinin/thiamine reaction and generate the amplified fluorescence signal. The wide linear range up to 13.0 μM with the low limit of detection of 0.03 μM (S/N = 3) was achieved for the determination of artemisinin by using the proposed POMs-microsensor. The method has been successfully used to detect artemisinin in human plasma and antimalarial drugs with satisfactory accuracy. This work developed a novel capillary fluorescence microsensor with functional POMs as nanozyme, which can serve as a promising candidate in fluorescence microanalysis. Graphical abstract