Highly selective detection of epinephrine by a “turn-off” fluorescent sensor based on N-doped carbon quantum dots

• Published in: Spectrochimica acta. Part A, Molecular and biomolecular spectroscopy Molecular and biomolecular spectroscopy, 2023-10, Vol.298, p.122760, Article 122760
• Main Authors: Wu, Yue, Lan, Wei, He, Song, Guo, Xiaoming, Hai, Chengying, Zhao, Xiangyu, Chen, Hengye, Long, Wanjun, She, Yuanbin, Fu, Haiyan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Epinephrine; Fluorescent sensor; N-doped carbon quantum dots; Photo-induced electron transfer
• ISSN: 1386-1425
• DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.122760

[Display omitted] •A novel fluorescent sensing method based on N-CDs for the detection of epinephrine.•The fluorescence quenching of N-CDs by EP via PET is linear concentration dependent.•Similar components, even norepinephrine, could not interfere with the detection.•This method is low-cost, rapid and high selective, suitable for in situ test. Epinephrine (EP) is a catecholamine hormone with a variety of physiological activities. Monitoring the concentration of EP in drugs, food, biological samples and cosmetics is of great significance for their quality control. Herein, a novel fluorescence sensing method was designed for the high-specificity detection of EP based on N-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CDs). The EP could interact with the fluorescent senor of N-CDs which emits blue fluorescence to produce concentration- dependent fluorescence quenching through the photo-induced electron transfer (PET). The established sensing method has good linearity in the range of 0.5–10 μM with the LOD of 0.15 μM. More importantly, it is highly selective because similar components with phenolic hydroxyl groups or primary amino groups, even norepinephrine (NEP), could not interfere with the detection. This method can provide a low-cost, rapid and simple new way for the detection of EP, and has a good application prospect in point-of-care assay and in situ test.