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The design and construction of a novel magnetic resonance sensor (MRS) is presented for bisphenol A (BPA) detection. The MRS has been built based on the core component of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (~ 40 nm), which were uniformly distributed in nanoporous carbon (abbreviated as Fe3O4@NPC). The synthesis was derived from the calcination of the metal organic framework (MOF) precursor of Fe-MIL-101 at high temperature. Fe3O4@NPC was confirmed with enhanced transversal relaxation with r2 value of 118.2 mM−1 s−1, which was around 1.7 times higher than that of the naked Fe3O4 nanoparticle. This enhancement is attributed to the excellent proton transverse relaxation rate of Fe3O4@NPC caused by the reduced self-diffusion coefficient of water molecules in the vicinity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the nanoporous carbon. BPA antibody (Ab) and antigen (Ag)-ovalbumin (OVA) were immobilized onto the Fe3O4@NPC to form Ab-Fe3O4@NPC and Ag-Fe3O4@NPC, respectively. These two composites can cause the three-dimensional assembly of Fe3O4@NPC via immunological recognition. The presence of BPA can compete with antigen-OVA to combine with Ab-Fe3O4@NPC, thereby breaking the assembly process (disassembly). The difference in the change of the T2 value before and after adding BPA can thus be used to monitor BPA. The proposed MRS not only revealed a wide linear range of BPA concentration from 0.05 to 50 ng mL−1 with an extremely low detection limit of 0.012 ng mL−1 (S/N = 3), but also displayed high selectivity towards matrix interferences. The recoveries of BPA ranged from 95.6 to 108.4% for spiked tea π, and 93.4 to 104.7% for spiked canned oranges samples, respectively, and the RSD (n = 3) was less than 4.4% for 3 successive assays. The versatility of Fe3O4@NPC with customized relaxation responses provides the possibility for the adaptation of magnetic resonance platforms for food safety development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel covalent organic framework based magnetic adsorbent was developed for magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Covalent organic framework-LZU1 (= Lan Zhou University-1) was covalently immobilized onto polyethyleneimine-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (COF-LZU1@PEI@FeO), and the resulting material was characterized by transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The effects of the pH value of sample solution, percentage of acetonitrile, extraction time and sampling volume on MSPE of six PAHs were investigated. The COF-LZU1@PEI@FeO displays high extraction efficiency for the PAHs such as pyrene, benzo[a]pyrene, fluoranthene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[a]fluorathene and dibenz[a,h]anthracene. Following desorption with acetonitrile, the PAHs were quantified by HPLC. The MSPE-HPLC method shows low limit of detection (0.2-20 pg mL), wide linear range and good reproducibility (relative standard deviations <4.4% for intra-day and inter-day precision). The method was successfully applied to determine PAHs in environmental samples. Good recoveries were obtained, ranging from 90.9 to 107.8% for water samples and 85.1 to 105.0% for soil samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a microfluidic SERS chip-based rapid and high-throughput method for the determination of chemical and biological analytes, specifically of melamine. The chip consists of an indium tin oxide (ITO) glass plate modified with silver-gold nanocomposites (Ag-Au NCs) and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cover plate. The chip has five parallel microfluidic channels. The ITO glass provides electrical conductivity and has a smooth surface which makes it well suited for the deposition of the Ag-Au NC by electrodeposition and galvanic replacement. This technique allows good control of the morphology and composition of the composite. Under optimized conditions, the microfluidic SERS chip provides excellent sensitivity for 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA). The detection limit is 0.1 nM and the SERS enhancement factor is 2.7×10. The chip exhibits good stability over time and good reproducibility, with a RSD of 8.6 % between the 5 micro-channels. The chip was successfully applied to the determination of melamine in milk with a 10 nM detection limit and an analytical range from 10 nM to 0.1 mM. It is demonstrated that the microfluidic SERS chip developed here shows great promise for use in biochemical assays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensors for which the output signal is an intensity change for a single-emission peak are easily disturbed by many factors, such as the stability of the instrument, intensity of the excitation light, and biological background. However, for ratiometric fluorescence sensors, the output signal is a change in the intensity ratio of two or more emission peaks. The fluorescence intensity of these emission peaks is similarly affected by external factors; thus, these sensors have the ability to self-correct, which can greatly improve the accuracy and reliability of the detection results. To accurately image glutathione (GSH) in cells, gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) with intrinsic double emission at wavelengths of 606 nm and 794 nm were synthesized from chloroauric acid. With the emission peak at 606 nm as the recognition signal and the emission peak at 794 nm as the reference signal, a near-infrared dual-emission ratio fluorescence sensing platform was constructed to accurately detect changes in the GSH concentration in cells. In vitro and in vivo analyses showed that the ratiometric fluorescent probe specifically detects GSH and enables ultrasensitive imaging, providing a new platform for the accurate detection of active small molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A boronate-modified magnetic affinity sorbent was prepared by adopting hyperbranched polyethyleneimine as the scaffold to amplify initiator sites. 3-Acrylamidophenylboronic acid was employed as monomer to proceed in situ free-radical polymerization on magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles. Due to the improved density of boronic acid polymers, the adsorbent exhibited high adsorption capacity, typically (134 ± 8) μg mg−1 for dopamine, (92 ± 7) μg mg−1 for catechol, (363 ± 14) μg mg−1 for ovalbumin and (464 ± 22) μg mg−1 for horseradish peroxidase. These capacities are much higher than those of other adsorbents. The sorbent was applied to the enrichment of catecholamines from spiked human urine. Owing to the high adsorption capacity, only 1.0 mg of adsorbent was sufficient to eliminate the interferences and enrich the targets (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine) within 5 min. They were quantified by HPLC. The recoveries from spiked samples range between 83.5% ~106%, with relative standard deviations of 3.2 ~ 9.4% (n = 5). The separation of glycoproteins from egg white was also accomplished prior to their analysis by PAGE. In the authors' perception, this approach is promising in that the density of functional groups on the adsorbent is strongly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]