Detection of hydroquinone with a novel fluorescence probe based on the enzymatic reaction of graphite phase carbon nitride quantum dots

This paper developed a sensitive method for detecting hydroquinone by combining the unique optical properties of quantum dots and the specificity of enzymatic reactions . The interesting results shown that the fluorescence of graphite phase carbon nitride quantum dot (g-CNQDs) was quenched directly by benzoquinone or indirectly by hydroquinone (H 2 Q), and the possible quenching mechanism was proposed. Quinone might generate by catalyzing the oxidation of H 2 Q with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The intermediate quinone could effectively quench the fluorescence of g-CNQDs quantum dots. Therefore, a novel fluorescence probe based on g-CNQDs Quantum Dots was successfully used to detect H 2 Q by strongly quenching the fluorescence of g-CNQDs Quantum Dots which mediated by horseradish peroxidase enzymes. The detection limit was as low as 0.04 μM (S/N = 3), and the linear range was 0.5–11.6 μM. This kind of quantum dot-enzyme system has the advantages of simple operation, no modification of quantum dots, low cost, high sensitivity and short detection time.