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In this study, we established a simple colorimetric method for visual detection of chromium (III) ions using aggregated silver nanoprisms induced by monohydrogen phosphate. The detection strategy had two steps, selective aggregation of silver nanoprisms with monohydrogen phosphate at high temperature, and anti aggregation of silver nanoprisms in the presence of chromium (III) ions. In this strategy, significant spectral shift of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption peak of silver nanoprisms could be visualized with the color changed from yellow to blue. The spectral peak shift of silver nanoprisms in the anti-aggregation process was linear with the concentrations of the added chromium (III) ions in the range of 20.0–800.0 nM. Thus, a colorimetric method for chromium (III) ions detection was established with the detection limit of 3.6 nM. The experimental results of real water samples indicated that the colorimetric sensor was potential in environmental monitoring.

Cysteine is widely used as a stabilizer for the preparation of fluorescent gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) with different fluorescence properties. Herein, by using cysteine as a stabilizer and controlling the synthesis conditions, a new non-fluorescent cysteine stabilized gold nanocluster (Cys-Au NCs) probe was prepared and a new strategy for "turning on" the fluorescence of the Cys-Au NCs was studied for rapid and selective detection of silver ions. In this strategy, the addition of silver ions to non-fluorescent Cys-Au NCs solution could quickly induce a visible fluorescence "turn on" phenomenon in 30 s. Further studies indicated that this fluorescence "turn on" phenomenon is specific for silver ions and the "turn on" fluorescence intensity has a linear relationship with the amount of silver ions in the range from 3.0 to 30.0 μM. Therefore, the non-fluorescent Cys-Au NCs were applied to the detection of silver ions in environmental water samples and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.26 μM was obtained. This research sheds light on new applications of Au NCs and proposes a simple, rapid, sensitive, and visual method for the detection of metal ions.

The abuse of antibiotics would seriously affect human health and has become of worldwide critical concern, thus it is urgent to develop an environmentally friendly and nontoxic fluorescent probe for antibiotics sensing. In this work, a lead-free Cs

Nowadays, there are many ways to obtain cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals. In addition to the synthesis methods carried out in solution, the solid-phase synthesis was reported involving grinding and milling. In this paper, we synthesized luminescent CsPbBr3/Cs4PbBr6 perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) by three solid-phase synthesis methods (grinding, knocking, stirring) using L-lysine as a ligand. This is the first attempt to use an amino acid for assisting the solid phase synthesis of perovskite and to study the difference in the products obtained by the three solid phase synthesis methods. The results show that the productivity of the solid-phase synthesis methods can be greatly improved by adding L-lysine and the perovskites obtained by the methods are more resistant to water due to the addition of L-lysine. The simplicity of the synthesis process expanded the use of solid-phase synthesis to obtain more perovskites and provided potential applications of perovskite in analytical detection and sensing in aqueous solution.

All-inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have not widely been applied for analytical detection due to their insufficient stability in moisture or polar solvents. Herein, we report the first application of luminescent CsPbBr3 PNCs for detecting Hg2+ in water based on liquid/liquid (CCl4/H2O) extraction. In this strategy, the CsPbBr3 PNCs are dissolved in the CCl4 phase and the target Hg2+ are dissolved in the water phase. After the liquid/liquid extraction of Hg2+ from H2O to CCl4, the luminescence of CsPbBr3 PNCs in CCl4 could be quenched by the Hg2+ ions. The CsPbBr3 PNCs can be used as a luminescence probe to realize a rapid, simple, and visual analysis of Hg2+. The Hg2+ concentration in the range from 50.0 nM to 10.0 µM can be linearly measured with a limit of detection (LOD) of 35.65 nM. The method proposed here has the potential to establish a new method to visualization Hg pollution in water and also could promote the application of PNCs in the detection of important targets in water environments.

A new photocatalytic synthesis strategy for rapid preparation of BSA-Au nanoclusters (NCs) with tunable fluorescence was developed and used for the highly selective detection of silver ion. In this strategy, the silver ion was firstly photo-reduced to Ag NCs under UV light illumination. Then, the produced Ag NCs would further reduce HAuCl4 to Au NCs stabilized in BSA molecules. In this process, silver ion not only acted as a photocatalyst to accelerate the formation of fluorescent Au nanocluster but also as a regulator to tune the fluorescence emission color of the BSA-Au NCs from orange to red. The maximum emission peak of BSA-Au NCs fluorescence could be tuned from 570 to 620 nm in different experimental conditions. Furthermore, a fluorescence emission peak red-shifts of the as-prepared BSA-Au NCs could also be observed by subsequent adding of silver ion. Thus, a quantitative analytical method for silver ion detection could be established in the range from 5.0 to 60.0 μM with a detection limit (LOD) of 0.226 μM (3σ). The method had high selectivity that other common metal ions and small biological molecules did not have similar phenomena. It had great potential for applying for environmental water sample analysis.

A hydrothermal method was applied to the synthesis of green-emitting gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) which are shown to be viable fluorescent probes for 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The Au NCs were prepared by using thiol-β-cyclodextrin as a template. Under 365 nm excitation, their green fluorescence has a peak at 502 nm, with a narrow emission bandwidth of only 30 nm. The fluorescence and composition of the Au NCs were characterized and the mechanism of the nanocluster formation is discussed. Due to host-guest recognition of β-cyclodextrin and 4-NP, fluorescence is quenched. The probe can selectively recognize 4-NP among other nitrophenols. A fluorometric and colorimetric assay was developed for 4-NP that works in the 0.1 to 100 μM concentration range and has a detection limit of 90 nM (at 3σ). Graphical abstractSchematic representation of hydrothermal synthesis of green-emitting gold nanoclusters using thiol-β-cyclodextrin. Fluorescence is quenched and the absorption of the nanoclusters is increases in the presence of 4-nitrophenol.

Recognition and quantification of oligonucleotide sequences play important roles in medical diagnosis. In this study, a new fluorescent oligonucleotide-stabilized silver nanocluster beacon (NCB) probe was designed for sensitive detection of oligonucleotide sequence targets. This probe contained two tailored DNA strands. One strand was a signal probe strand containing a cytosine-rich strand template for fluorescent silver nanocluster (Ag NC) synthesis and a detection sections at each end. The other strand was a fluorescence enhancing strand containing a guanine-rich section for signal enhancement at one end and a linker section complementary to one end of the signal probe strand. After synthesis of the Ag NCs and hybridization of the two strands, the fluorescence intensity of the as-prepared silver NCB was enhanced 200-fold compared with the Ag NCs. Two NCBs were designed to detect two disease-related oligonucleotide sequences, and results indicated that the two target oligonucleotide sequences in the range 50.0-600.0 and 50.0-200.0 nM could be linearly detected with detection limits of 20 and 25 nM, respectively. The developed fluorescence method using NCBs for oligonucleotide sequence detection was sensitive, facile and had potential for use in bioanalysis and diagnosis.

A facile, economical and one-step hydrothermal method was used to synthesize fluorescent carbon dots by utilizing citric acid as carbon source and phenylalanine to provide nitrogen. The as-prepared fluorescence carbon dots had strong blue light emission around 440 nm. As confirmed by UVvis absorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscope characterization, the carbon dots were small and very stable in water for using as a fluorescent probe. It was also found that the fluorescence of the carbon dots could be quenched in the presence of Fe

Fluorescent DNA-stabilized Ag nanoclusters (DNA/Ag NCs) plays significant roles in biochemical detections due to their high fluorescence quantum yield, high stability and good biocompatibility. In this paper, two guanine-enhanced fluorescence DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters were designed to study the effect of guanine coating degree on silver nanoclusters fluorescence and their interactions with small biological molecules. The results indicated that the degree of guanine coating had a slight influence on the fluorescence of the two DNA/Ag NCs, however, the two DNA/Ag NCs had different fluorescence response when interacting with different small biological molecules. The fluorescence of the DNA/Ag NCs wrapped in the guanine-rich strand could be quenched by small biomolecules such as ascorbic acid, dopamine and cysteine, while the fluorescence of the DNA/Ag NCs approached to the guanine-rich strand could only be quenched by dopamine and cysteine. Based on this interesting phenomenon, an analytical method for recognition of ascorbic acid, dopamine and cysteine from other small biological molecules can be established by measuring the fluorescence change of DNA/Ag NCs and a method for selective detection of ascorbic acid in the absence of dopamine and cysteines can be achieved by combining the two DNA/Ag NCs probe.

A facile, economical and one-step hydrothermal method was used to synthesize fluorescent carbon dots by utilizing citric acid as carbon source and phenylalanine to provide nitrogen. The as-prepared fluorescence carbon dots had strong blue light emission around 440 nm. As confirmed by UVvis absorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscope characterization, the carbon dots were small and very stable in water for using as a fluorescent probe. It was also found that the fluorescence of the carbon dots could be quenched in the presence of Fe3+ ions, and the quenching rate was linear with the concentration of Fe3+ ions. We here proposed a static quenching mechanism about the fluorescence of the Phe-CDs could be selectively quenched by Fe3+ ions, which was because these Fe3+ ions could easily combine with the hydroxyl or carboxyl groups on the surface of Phe-CDs and induced aggregation. In addition, the pH had little effect on the fluorescence intensity of the Phe-CDs and maintained excellent fluorescence intensity even under extreme pH value conditions and could be used for the detection of Fe3+ ions. We have demonstrated that the method using the carbon dots for Fe3+ ions detection was rapid, reliable, and selective with a detection limit as low as 0.720 μM and a dynamic range from 5.0 to 500.0 μM. Moreover, the results of determination Fe3+ ions in tap water samples indicated that the presented method has potential for practical application in environmental metal analysis.

Fluorescence of DNA-templated silver nanoclusters can be enhanced by more than 100-fold by placing the nanoclusters in proximity to guanine-rich DNA sequences after hybridization. We found that the fluorescence of the guanine-enhanced silver nanoclusters is not increased with the guanine-rich DNA sequence closer to the silver nanoclusters. By studying the different numbers of mismatches in the linker sequences, we found that the presence of a single-nucleotide mismatch in the linker increases fluorescence more than the complementary nucleotide. Further study indicated the mismatch position of the linker sequence also affects the fluorescence of the hybridized DNA-Ag NCs. The evidence reported here indicated that the mismatch of the linker sequence affects the fluorescence enhancement of guanine-enhanced silver nanoclusters. We also found that DNA-Ag NCs is an excellent fluorescence sensor for cyanide, as cyanide effectively quenches the fluorescence of NCs at a very low concentration with high selectivity. Cyanide in the range from 0.10 μM to 0.35 μM could be linearly detected, with a detection limit of 25.6 nM.