SPR based gold nano-probe as optical sensor for cysteine detection via plasmonic enhancement in the presence of Cr3+

A selective and sensitive detection of L-cysteine (Cys) is an important tool for various biological studies. Here, Au nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by chemical reduction technique. The probe was developed to detect and quantify Cys in the presence of Cr3+ ions which acts as a cross linker. The citrate capped Au NPs probe was analyzed by UV-visible spectrophotometry, TEM, EDAX, FTIR, DLS, XPS and zetasize. The zeta potential and effective size of Au NPs were -41.22 mV and 12 nm, respectively. The Cys interaction with Au NPs showed drastic colour variation from red to purple and colourless with rapid response time of 1 min. The limit of detection (LOD) of Au NPs probe was as low as 0.012 nM. The TEM image of Au NPs after Cys interaction verified the aggregation that resulted in colour change. The XPS core level scans of Au 4f showed 0.3 eV red shift when Cys was interacted. The Au NPs sensor is highly selective for Cys with excellent reproducibility. Acidic pH slightly favored Cys detection. Further, the probe was applied to estimate Cys quantity from milk, urine, blood and environmental augmented samples in the presence of other amino acids. The study suggests that the proposed Au NPs could detect Cys with high accuracy from various biological samples. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study developed a probe for selective and sensitive detection of L-cysteine using gold nanoparticles, showing high accuracy in quantifying Cys from various biological samples even in the presence of other amino acids. The proposed Au NPs sensor exhibited excellent reproducibility and selectivity for Cys detection.