Preparation of a fluorescent silver nanoprism–dye complex for detection of hydrogen peroxide in milk

Abstract

A simple and sensitive “turn-on” fluorescence detection method for H₂O₂ in milk was developed based on H₂O₂ induced morphology transitions of fluorescent dye–protein complex-capped silver nanoprisms (FDSNPs). The rounding of the FDSNPs accompanies desorption of a fluorescent dye–protein complex, which resulted in recovery of the fluorescence intensity. In a 4 order of magnitude dynamic range from 10 nM to 100 μM, the fluorescence intensity of the FDSNPs sensitively increased with increasing H₂O₂ concentration. The limit of detection for H₂O₂ was 4.0 nM. Furthermore, the developed method was applied to detect H₂O₂ in milk with satisfying recoveries of over 80% after milk was simply pretreated.