Fluorescent turn-off/on bioassay for hemoglobin based on dual-emission carbon nanodots-graphene oxide system with multi-detection strategies

• Fluorescence of dual-emission carbon nanodots could be quenched by graphene oxide.
• Fluorescence of DECNDs-GO system would recover in the presence of hemoglobin.
• Multi-detection strategies could be employed to sense hemoglobin.
• This Hb sensor showed superior sensitivity and selectivity.
• The proposed approach was applied for detection of Hb in practical blood samples.

As two members of the carbon materials family, carbon nanodots (CNDs) and graphene oxide (GO) possess many excellent optical properties resulting in a wide range of applications. In this work, the fluorescence of resultant dual-emission carbon nanodots (DECNDs) could be quenched by GO. In the presence of hemoglobin (Hb), the fluorescence would recover resulting from two interactions: one was the direct stacking effect of Hb on GO; the other one was that Hb could cover the surfaces of DECNDs; both of them would prevent the fluorescence quenching of DECNDs by GO. In the light of this mechanism, a novel fluorescent turn-off/on method has been developed for the detection of Hb based on DECNDs-GO system. By virtue of the dual emissions of these CNDs, it is noteworthy that both a single emission and ratiometric of dual emissions can be used to establish linear relationships of Hb: 0.05–300 nM (λem = 386 nm), 5–500 nM (λem = 530 nm), and 50–500 nM (I530/I410), with the corresponding limit of detection (LOD) as low as 20 pM, 2 nM and 20 nM, respectively. This present system is highly selective toward Hb over other proteins and this reliable method has been successfully applied for the detection of Hb in whole blood samples.

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