The controllable fabrication of AIE gold nanoclusters and utilizing as portable ultrasensitive detection sensor for silver ions via smartphone

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is life-threatening, the detection of heavy metals is crucial to human health and environment. In this work, AIE featured LA-stabilized gold nanoclusters (NL-AuNCs) were designed and fabricated by modulating precursors in various reaction conditions, and utilized as an efficient fluorescent sensor for portable detecting Ag⁺ with high sensitivity and selectivity. The NL-AuNCs exhibited intense red fluorescence at 625 nm via the secondary reducing agent N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), achieving a quantum yield (QY) of 15.7 %. Notably, the introduction of Ag⁺ enhanced the red fluorescence intensity of NL-AuNCs on account of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) process, rendering NL-AuNCs uniquely capable of detecting Ag⁺ with the ultralow detection limit of 1.3 nM within a wide concentration range of 0.002–200 μM. Furthermore, the handheld intelligent sensing strategy was constructed by integrating the smartphone App, which enabled swift portable monitoring and convenient readout by visual assessment of color evolution. The acceptable recoveries of 94.6 % to 114.9 % were attained from testing real water, indicating the excellent environmental tolerance of NL-AuNCs, which allowed the possibility for practical in-situ detection.