Issue 21, 2022

Nanoconfinement – amplified, Förster resonance energy transfer in nile red – borne mesoporous silica for ultrasensitive, multiplex assay of triphenylmethane dyes in aqueous milieu

Abstract

In this work, lipophilic Nile red (NR) was loaded into the mesopores of MCM-41 particles via hydrogen bonding-driven adsorption in organic media, and the resulting NR-borne MCM-41 particles were harnessed as mesoporous luminescent donors to detect hydrophilic triphenylmethane (TPM) dyes in aqueous media based on NR-to-TPM Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). This new approach enabled us to determine the TPM concentration ranging from ca. 1 μmol L−1 to ca. 1 nmol L−1 with the detection limit at the level of 0.1 nmol L−1 (0.1 ppb) as a result of about 1000-fold enrichment of the TPM dyes in the NR-borne MCM-41 mesopores thanks to nanoconfinement. The TPM-induced fluorescence quenching constant of NR-borne MCM-41 particles, obtained according to the Stern–Volmer relationship, was empirically connected with their NR uptake in a log-linear manner, the slope of which enabled one to identify the molecular nature of TPM dyes. Furthermore, a rough-and-read protocol of image analysis and processing was developed to convert the fluorescence images of microtiter plates with wells filled with NR-borne MCM-41 particles and aqueous TPM solutions into the multiplex, FRET-encoded matrices, which enabled us to simultaneously realize molecular identification of the targeted TPM analytes and sub-ppb-level determination of their concentrations.

Graphical abstract: Nanoconfinement – amplified, Förster resonance energy transfer in nile red – borne mesoporous silica for ultrasensitive, multiplex assay of triphenylmethane dyes in aqueous milieu

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
15 Jul 2022
Accepted
10 Sep 2022
First published
13 Sep 2022

Mater. Chem. Front., 2022,6, 3243-3252

Nanoconfinement – amplified, Förster resonance energy transfer in nile red – borne mesoporous silica for ultrasensitive, multiplex assay of triphenylmethane dyes in aqueous milieu

Y. Chen, S. Ye, C. Cheng, R. Xie and D. Wang, Mater. Chem. Front., 2022, 6, 3243 DOI: 10.1039/D2QM00709F

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