Photoluminescence suppression effect caused by histamine on amino-functionalized graphene quantum dots with the mediation of Fe3Â +, Cu2Â +, Eu3Â +: Application in the analysis of spoiled tuna fish

In this work, the photoluminescence of aqueous dispersion of amino-functionalized graphene quantum dots (GQDs-amino), with average size of 28 nm, was studied in the presence of histamine when interaction was mediated by different metal ions. Stronger and selective interaction towards histamine occurred in the presence of Eu3 +, Fe3 + and Cu2 +. The sensibility of the normalized photoluminescence suppression curves (Ks) indicated a ten time stronger interaction of histamine with the surface of the GQDs in the presence of Fe3 +. The linear response observed in the GQDs-amino-Fe3 + (luminescence at 345/435 nm) covered the histamine concentration from 4.3 × 10− 7 mol L− 1 (limit of quantification) to 3.2 × 10− 5 mol L− 1. The GQDs-amino-Fe3 + was applied as a probe in the analysis of tuna fish samples after cationic solid phase extraction. Analytical results were statistically similar to the ones achieved with a reference HPLC-fluorescence (after chemical derivatization) based method. The proposed method for determination of histamine is simple, does not involve the use of toxic labeling reagents and can easily be adapted for routine quality control analysis of fish and related foodstuffs.