New detection method for nucleoside triphosphates based on carbon dots: The distance-dependent singlet oxygen trapping

The distance-dependent based sensing mechanism, such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption of gold nanoparticles , has been used widely in visual detection. In this work, we report another distance-dependent detection method for nucleoside triphosphates (NTPs) based on carbon dots (CDs) ( 1 O 2 donor) and 9, 10-diphenylanthracene-2-boronic acid (DABA, 1 O 2 acceptor). The CDs can generate singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) which allows diffusion within 200 nm. Thus, the distance between CDs and DABA decreased through binding of NTPs (<200 nm), leading to absorption changes of DABA under light irradiation due to 1 O 2 trapping. This sensing system ( [email protected] ) has high selectivity for the detection of NTPs due to the double molecular recognition and a linear response in the 0–80 μM concentration range was accomplished with the detection limit as low as 4.35 μM.