Self-assembled copper nanoclusters structure-dependent fluorescent enhancement for sensitive determination of tetracyclines by the restriction intramolecular motion

Abstract The exploration of turn-on fluorescent method for sensitive detection of tetracycline is still challenging. This paper reports a kind of specific structure of self-assembled copper nanoclusters (CuNCs), greatly enhancing the fluorescence emission intensity of tetracycline (TC). Fluorescence enhancement is mainly ascribed to that tetracycline can defuse into the compatible space of special structure of self-assembled CuNCs, and intramolecular motion of TC can be effectively restricted, leading to fluorescence emission enhancement of TC. The assay enables TC to be detected with high sensitivity and linear response that covers the 200 nM to 50 μM TC concentration range with a 40 nM limit of detection, which is lower by 50-fold than the method without self-assembled CuNCs. Furthermore, the strategy is further applied for determining TC contents in milk and urine samples.