Glutathione modified Ag2Te nanoparticles as a resonance Rayleigh scattering sensor for highly sensitive and selective determination of cytochrome C

Glutathione (GSH) capped Ag 2 Te nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared in aqueous solution, and then investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–vis spectra, resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results indicated that the prepared GSH-Ag 2 Te NPs have good monodispersity, stability and 3–5   nm. Cytochrome C was chosen as a model analyte to study the potential of GSH-Ag 2 Te NPs in the RRS analytical application. Under optimal conditions, the RRS intensity of GSH-Ag 2 Te NPs was significantly enhanced by interacting with cytochrome C and good linear relationship between the RRS intensity at 365   nm and cytochrome C concentration in the range of 0.08   μg/mL −22.5   μg/mL was found. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.024   μg/mL. The application in human serum samples indicated that the GSH-Ag 2 Te NPs could be a promising candidate probe of RRS biosensors in the future due to their fantastic features.