A sensitive fluorescence “turn on” nanosensor for glutathione detection based on Ce-MOF and gold nanoparticles

The Ce-MOF owns an emission peak at 377 nm with 260 nm excitation wavelength. In the present of AuNPs, the fluorescence of Ce-MOF was quenched due to fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and electrostatic interaction. However, AuNPs can combine with thiol (−SH) moiety of glutathione (GSH) to form Au-SH covalent bond. This obstructs the FRET and the fluorescence of Ce-MOF is recovered. Based on this, we proposed a“off–on” fluorescence platform for rapid detection of GSH. [Display omitted] •A “turn on” sensor was for detection of GSH based on Ce-MOF and AuNPs was constructed.•The formation Au-S bond between GSH and AuNPs prevents the fluorescence resonance energy transfer between Ce-MOF and AuNPs.•The sensing platform shows high sensitivity and selectivity for detection of GSH. Glutathione (GSH) as an essential biothiol maintains redox homeostasis in human body, the aberrant level of it has been related to various diseases. In this work, we constructed a facile and environment-friendly strategy by using Ce based metal–organic frameworks and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for detection of GSH. The fluorescence intensity of the Ce-MOF was quenched by AuNPs, which is ascribed to the existence of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and electrostatic interaction between Ce-MOFs and AuNPS. Because of the formation of Au-SH between AuNPs and GSH, the addition GSH induced the Ce-MOF/AuNPs and prevented the occurrence of FRET and electrostatic interaction between Ce-MOFs and AuNPS, which futher recovered the fluorescence of Ce-MOF. Under the optimized conditions, this “turn-on” sensing process revealed a high selectivity toward GSH and displayed good linearity in range of 0.2–32.5 μM with low detection limit of 58 nM. In addition, the practicability of the strategy was testified through analyzing GSH in real human serum samples.