pH and H2O2 dual-responsive carbon dots for biocatalytic transformation monitoring

Development of sensitive biosensors for biocatalytic transformations monitoring is in high demand but remains a great challenge. It is ascribed to the current strategies that focused on the single metabolite detection, which may bring about the relatively low sensitivity and false diagnosis result. Herein, we report the design and fabrication of novel carbon dots (CDs) with strong orange light emission, pH and H₂O₂ dual-responsive characteristics. The fluorescence quenching of CDs by H⁺ and H₂O₂ enables the highly sensitive detection of H⁺/H₂O₂-generating biocatalytic transformations. This is exemplified by the glucose oxidase-mediated catalytic oxidation reaction on glucose, in which H⁺ and H₂O₂ would be formed. As compared to the case in which glucose is present, significant fluorescence reduction is detected, and the fluorescence intensity is negatively proportional to glucose concentration. Thus, highly sensitive detection of glucose was readily achieved with a detection limit down to 10.18 nmol/L. The prepared CDs not only realize the highly sensitive detection of glucose, but also allows the probing other substances by changing the enzymes, thus providing a versatile platform, and demonstrating good potential to be used for biocatalytic transformations effective monitoring.