Label-free photoelectrochemical cytosensing via resonance energy transfer using gold nanoparticle-enhanced carbon dots

A universal and label-free photoelectrochemical cytosensing strategy was designed based on resonance energy transfer (RET) between carbon dots and cysteamine capped gold nanoparticles. RET promoted photo-to-current conversion efficiency and enhanced detection sensitivity. This proposed photoelectrochemical cytosensing platform exhibited a good performance for the assay of tumor cells with overexpressed receptors on cells.