Dual-emissive fluorescence and phosphorescence detection of cholesterol and glucose based on carbon dots-cyanuric acid complex quenched by MnO2 nanosheets

Abstract The current fluorescence assays are generally restricted by their background fluorescence and scattering light, thus room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials show the promising prospect towards biosensing. Herein, a facile strategy has been proposed to synthesize carbon dots (CDs) with blue fluorescence, which further achieved emitting phosphorescence in aqueous environment by cooperating with cyanuric acid (CA). Significantly, the dual-emissive fluorescence and phosphorescence of CA-CDs could be obviously quenched by manganese dioxide nanosheets through F o ¨ rster resonance energy transfer and dynamic quenching effect. On the basis of the generation of hydrogen peroxide by enzyme catalyzing the corresponding substrate, a universal sensing platform for detecting cholesterol and glucose was originally established. To be specific, the linear ranges were 0.02625∼2.1 mg  mL-1 for cholesterol sensing, and 0.1∼20 mM for the detection of glucose, which exhibited general agreement with the physiological range, thus may broaden the avenue of assaying other targets.