Water-soluble luminescent gold nanoclusters reduced and protected by histidine for sensing of barbaloin and temperature

In terms of the vital functions of barbaloin, it is necessary to develop a selective and sensitive detection means in barbaloin sensing to replace the previous defective analytical methods. Herein, the water-soluble luminescent gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) with good emission character were firstly established for barbaloin detection with high efficiency. The small size and stable probe was synthesized through one-pot way by protecting and reducing of histidine (His). The characterization results revealed that the quenching mechanism was mainly attributed to the inner filter effect (IFE). The His-Au NCs displayed high selectivity to barbaloin against interferes and a good linear relationship existed in the range of 0.5–150 μM. More importantly, the probe was successfully employed to detect barbaloin in bovine serum samples with satisfactory recoveries and the excellent performance was also obtained from temperature sensing. This novel detection platform expanded the analytical methods for barbaloin based on fluorescence properties.