Coordination-induced decomposition of luminescent gold nanoparticles: sensitive detection of H2O2 and glucose

The surface inert of luminescent gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) toward biomolecules set a challenge to further exploit their bioanalytical applications using the direct luminescence response. Herein, we report a novel approach to induce significant luminescence quenching of the AuNPs upon the interaction with a metal coordination ligand tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP), providing a strategy for the detection of H2O2 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 14 nM through the reaction between H2O2 and TCEP to protect the luminescence quenching of the AuNPs. Furthermore, this strategy is also extended for sensitive and selective detection of glucose with a LOD of 1.1 μM based on monitoring the production of H2O2 catalyzed from the oxidation of glucose. The highly extendable feature of this strategy can have great potential in the sensitive detection of other biomolecules.