Development of a new nanosensor for the determination of food coloring Sunset Yellow in powder drinks using L-cysteine coated copper nanoclusters.

Sunset Yellow (SY), which is an artificial azo dye, is preferable for its high stability and low cost. The determination of SY in foods is extremely important for human health because excessive consumption of SY has harmful effects, such as hyperactivity disorder and cancer. In this method, L-cysteine coated copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) were used as a fluorescence probe. L-cysteine has been used as both a reducing and stabilizing agent. One-step green hydrothermal synthesis of CuNCs was made. L-cysteine-coated CuNCs have been characterized using several of methods. CuNCs quenching mechanism is static and inner filter effect (IFE). The linear range is 0.65-14 μg.ml^-1 at optimum conditions. LOD and LOQ values were calculated as 0.1 and 0.35 μg.ml^-1, respectively. The proposed method was used for the determination of SY in different type of powder drinks. The developed nanosensor is environmentally friendly, easy, fast, reproducible, and low cost.