Atomic
spectrometry (AS) has been widely used in bioassay, but
it requires steps to immobilize or separate the signal molecules.
In this work, based on the phenomenon that the filter membrane can
selectively separate multiple nanomaterials (nanoparticles (NPs) and
quantum dots (QDs)) and its related ions, including poly(thymine)-templated
Cu NPs and free Cu2+, Ag NPs and free Ag+, CdTe
QDs and Cd2+, we constructed multimode and label-free biosensors
by chemical vapor generation–atomic fluorescence spectrometry
(CVG-AFS), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS),
and fluorescence. In this strategy, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase
(TdT) and polynucleotide kinase (PNK), H2O2,
and mucin 1 can be sensitively detected using Cu2+, Ag+, and Cd2+ as the signal probe, respectively. As
a result, TdT and T4 PNK in single cells level can be accurately quantified.
In addition, the possible separation mechanism of filter membrane
was proposed, both Donnan repulsion by charged functional layer and
entrapment effect by nanomaterials size contributed to the outstanding
separation performance. Subsequently, on the basis that CdTe QDs can
selectively identify Cu NPs/Cu2+, Ag NPs/Ag+, and C–Ag+–C/Ag+, cation-exchange
reaction (CER) was introduced in this platform due to its unique advantages,
including improving the sensitivity of the above system (an order
of magnitude), converting the non-CVG metal elements into CVG elements,
and using low-cost AFS to substitute the high-cost ICP-MS. In addition,
we performed theoretical calculations of the selective CER using density
functional theory (DFT). Therefore, this label-free and simple separation
AS/ICP-MS sensing platform shows great potential for biomarker analysis.