A novel fluorescence "turn off-on" nanosensor for sensitivity detection acid phosphatase and inhibitor based on glutathione-functionalized graphene quantum dots.

In this paper, we developed a label-free and sensitive fluorescence sensor for acid phosphatase (ACP) and its inhibitor parathion-methyl (PM) detection based on glutathione-functionalized graphene quantum dots (GQDs@GSH). Upon addition of MnO2 nanosheets, the fluorescence of GQDs@GSH could be efficiently quenched via a fluorescence resonance energy transfer. ACP could easily catalyze the hydrolysis of L-Ascorbic acid-2-phosphate (AAP) to ascorbic acid (AA), which could reduce MnO2 nanosheets to Mn2+ in acidic environment, leading to dramatically increase of the fluorescence intensity of GQDs@GSH. Quantitative detection of ACP in a broad range from 0.1 to 9 mU mL-1 with a detection limit of 0.027 mU mL-1 could be achieved. The feasibility of the proposed sensor in real samples analysis was also studied and satisfactory results were obtained. Furthermore, the fluorescence assay strategy could also be used for the detection of parathion-methyl (PM) as ACP inhibitor.