Fluorescence switching method for cascade detection of salicylaldehyde and zinc(II) ion using protein protected gold nanoclusters

A new fluorescence switching sensor for cascade detection of salicylaldehyde (SA) and Zinc(II) ion was developed based on bovine serum albumin protected gold nanoclusters (BSA-AuNCs). In the detection, SA interacted with amino groups of BSA-AuNCs, inducing simultaneous formation of fluorescent Schiff base and fluorescence quenching of AuNCs. Zn(II) could further strongly coordinate with the Schiff base ligands, leading to blue-shift and increase of the fluorescence from Schiff base-metal coordination complexes and simultaneous recovery of fluorescence from AuNCs. The new fluorescence switching sensor for Zn2+ detection has advantages of simplicity, rapidity, naked-eye detection, high sensitivity and selectivity. The linear range of the method for Zn2+ detection is from 0.1 μM to 100 μM with the limit of detection (LOD) of 29.28 nM. In practical samples, the recoveries of the samples ranged from 99.63% to 100.58%.