Luminol and gold nanoparticle-co-precipitated reduced graphene oxide hybrids with long-persistent chemiluminescence for cholesterol detection

Herein, dual-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (rGO) hybrids (rGO/AuNP/luminol) with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and luminol were prepared via π–π conjugation and electrostatic interaction. The as-prepared rGO/AuNP/luminol hybrids exhibited enhanced and long-persistent chemiluminescence (CL) performance without decay for one hour when mixed with H2O2; this was due to the generation of ˙OH, O2˙−, 1O2, and π–CC˙ species. A sensitive and selective CL sensor based on the rGO/AuNP/luminol hybrid CL enhancing system was developed for cholesterol quantitation in the linear range from 0.71 to 11.43 μM with a detection limit of 0.55 μM. Furthermore, the proposed method was successfully exploited for the determination of cholesterol in human serum samples.