Perspective on recent developments of nanomaterial based fluorescent sensors: applications in safety and quality control of food and beverages

Abstract

As the highly toxic pollutants will seriously harm human health, it is particularly important to establish the analysis and detection technology of food pollutants. Compared with the traditional detection methods, fluorescent detection techniques based on nanomaterials trigger wide interesting because of reduced detection time, simple operation, high sensitivity and selectivity, and economic. In this review, the application of fluorescent sensors in food pollutants detection is presented. Firstly, conventional fluorescent nanomaterials including metal-based quantum dots, carbon dots, graphene quantum dots and metal nanoclusters were summarized, with emphasis on the photoluminescence mechanism. Then, the fluorescence sensors based on these nanomaterials for food pollutants detection were discussed, involving in the established methods, sensor mechanisms, sensitivity, selectivity, and practicability of fluorescence sensors. The selected analytes focus on five types of higher toxic food pollutants, including mycotoxins, foodborne pathogens, pesticide residues, antibiotic residues, and heavy metal ions. Finally, outlook on the future and potential development of fluorescence detection technology in the field of food science were proposed, including green synthesis and reusability of fluorescence probes, large-scale industrialization of sensors, nondestructive testing of samples and degradation of harmful substances.

Development of Fluorescent Carbon Nanoparticle-Based Probes for Intracellular pH and Hypochlorite Sensing

“…The fluorescent properties are similar to those of CDs reported in the literature [36]. In contrast, m-PD CDs like most CDs show excitation-dependent emission properties as shown in the inset of Figure S1C [11][12][13][14], with the strongest emission intensity in the blue region. Figure S1C shows a sharp absorption peak at 290 nm and a broadband at 320-350 nm of m-PD CDs, corresponding to the π-π* transition of aromatic C=C bonds and n-π* transition of C=O and C=N bonds at the edge of the carbon lattice, respectively [37].…”

“…Upon a single excitation at 380 nm, the Pdots-PPF exhibit ratiometric pH sensing ability within a wide range of pH value ranging from 3.0 to 8.0 [10]. Recently, fluorescent carbon based-nanoparticles have received great interest due to their low chemical/cytotoxicity, good biocompatibility, multicolor luminescence tunability, and resistance to photobleaching [11][12][13]. Carbon dots (CDs) prepared by a variety of carbon sources in facile methods have shown significantly improved behaviors and been demonstrated as a suitable candidate for fluorescent pH sensing [13][14][15][16][17].…”

Grand Challenges in Analytical Science

“…They may provide enough sensitivity for detection of food contaminants, but problems are usually raised when the matrix is complex. To further improve sensitivity, nanomaterials such as gold nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles, and gold nanoclusters have been used to ensure food safety (Han et al, 2020;Tao et al, 2020). When new or unknown pesticides, insecticides, or bacterial variants are present, standard approaches usually do not work.…”

Research progress on detection techniques for point-of-care testing of foodborne pathogens

“…Liquid chips, also known as microsphere suspension chips, began in the mid-1990s, with their diverse fluorescent encoded microspheres, up to 100 different probes can be crosslinked by different ways of binding and hybridization ( Jia et al, 2021b ). Qualitative and quantitative detection of microsphere fluorescence coding and molecular fluorescence intensity by two different laser beams is a new generation of high-throughput molecular detection technology platform following DNA chip and protein microarray ( Han et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2020 ; Yin et al, 2020 ). Pang et al (2019) established a microsphere-based suspension array (MSA) for the detection and identification of 55 V. parahaemolyticus K-serogroups based on CPSgc-specific genes.…”