A boronic acid carbon nanodots/poly(thionine) sensing platform for the accurate and reliable detection of NADH.

In this work, a novel electrochemical sensing platform was designed and fabricated by the modification of boronic acid functionalized carbon nanodots (B-CNDs) and poly(thionine) (pTHI) on an electrode surface. B-CNDs can not only accelerate electron transfer but also covalently interact with cis-diol groups of dihydronicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) through functionalized boronic acid groups. Meanwhile, pTHI served as an inner reference element to provide a built-in correction, which enabled the sensor to detect NADH with high accuracy and reliability based on a ratiometric signal (∆INADH/∆ITHI). The electrochemical experimental results demonstrated that the ratiometric strategy-based sensor possessed good selectivity and high sensitivity. A linear range of 5.0 × 10-7 - 2.0 × 10-4 mol/L for NADH detection was obtained with a limit of detection of 1.5 × 10-7 mol/L. The sensor has been applied to analyze NADH in human serum samples with satisfactory results. The simple and effective ratiometric strategy reported here can be further used to prepare electrochemical sensors for selective, sensitive, and reliable detection of other cis-diol compounds.