Histidine-capped fluorescent copper nanoclusters: an efficient sensor for determination of furaltadone in aqueous solution

Herein, histidine, as a protective agent, was applied for the synthesis of copper nanoclusters (histidine-Cu NCs) by using ascorbic acid as an efficient reducing agent. The as-fabricated fluorescent histidine-Cu NCs displayed blue-green emission wavelength at 492 nm with the excitation of 410 nm. Using histidine-Cu NCs as a novel nanoprobe, the fluorescent “turn-off” mechanism was developed for the determination of furaltadone accompanying linear attenuation of fluorescence at 492 nm. Furaltadone acted as a quencher and ln ( F 0 / F ) value of histidine-Cu NCs had an excellent linear relationship of furaltadone concentrations (0.5–500 μM) (the F 0 and F are referred to the fluorescence intensity of probe without and with furaltadone), along with the detection limit and linear fit constant of 0.085 μM and 0.9948, respectively. The fluorescence quenching of histidine-Cu NCs demonstrated good selectivity for furaltadone over other potential control substances. The quenching mechanism might be assumed to be static quenching. This system was proved to be an appropriate detection pattern for furaltadone sensing in real medical samples.