title: Highly sensitive and selective detection of dopamine using one-pot synthesized highly photoluminescent silicon nanoparticles.
abstract: A simple and highly efficient method for dopamine (DA) detection using water-soluble silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) was reported. The SiNPs with a high quantum yield of 23.6% were synthesized by using a one-pot microwave-assisted method. The fluorescence quenching capability of a variety of molecules on the synthesized SiNPs has been tested; only DA molecules were found to be able to quench the fluorescence of these SiNPs effectively. Therefore, such a quenching effect can be used to selectively detect DA. All other molecules tested have little interference with the dopamine detection, including ascorbic acid, which commonly exists in cells and can possibly affect the dopamine detection. The ratio of the fluorescence intensity difference between the quenched and unquenched cases versus the fluorescence intensity without quenching (ΔI/I) was observed to be linearly proportional to the DA analyte concentration in the range from 0.005 to 10.0 μM, with a detection limit of 0.3 nM (S/N = 3). To the best of our knowledge, this is the lowest limit for DA detection reported so far. The mechanism of fluorescence quenching is attributed to the energy transfer from the SiNPs to the oxidized dopamine molecules through Förster resonance energy transfer. The reported method of SiNP synthesis is very simple and cheap, making the above sensitive and selective DA detection approach using SiNPs practical for many applications.
authors: †State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors: Xiaodong
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: †State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors: Xiaokai
authors: X
authors: Chen
authors: †State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors: Siqi
authors: S
authors: Kai
authors: †State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors: Hong-Yin
authors: HY
authors: Wang
authors: †State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.|§School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
authors: Jingjing
authors: J
authors: Yang
authors: †State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
authors: Fu-Gen
authors: FG
authors: Wu
authors: ‡Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, 930 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States.
authors: Zhan
authors: Z
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D004298:Dopamine / Q000032:analysis*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D014867:Water; D004298:Dopamine; D012825:Silicon