A novel fluorescent aptasensor based on boron and nitrogen co-doped carbon flower–like composites and Exo III–assisted double-cycle signal amplification for the detection of acrylamide in food sources

Acrylamide (AA) contamination in food sources is an issue that endangers both human health and food safety worldwide; therefore, developing a highly sensitive detection technique is necessary. Herein, a boron and nitrogen co-doped carbon flower–like composite (B/N C NF) was prepared as a highly efficient quencher for the first time, and its quenching efficiency was found to be approximately 4 fold higher than that of N C. Three hairpin probes and exonuclease III were used to provide a double-cycle amplification system to improve the sensitivity. The sensor had a linear range of 0.01–500 nM, with limit of detection of 1.802 pM. In addition, the sensor successfully realized the detection of AA in actual samples (coffee, potato chips) and quality control samples (potato chips, cookies), and were compared with high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography, and the results showed that the sensor had reliable accuracy.