Amylase protected gold nanoclusters as chemo- and bio- sensor for nanomolar detection of deltamethrin and glutathione

Herein, we proposed a facile and green synthetic route for the fabrication of amylase encapsulated ultra-small fluorescent gold nanoclusters (amylase-Au NCs) for the detection of deltamethrin and glutathione (GSH) based on the turn off fluorescence quenching mechanism. A panel of characterizations was carried out to understand the electronic structure, morphology and surface chemistry of Au NCs. The obtained data revealed that the successful formation of amylase-Au NCs. The amylase capped Au NCs displayed excitation and emission bands at 383 and 660 nm, respectively with 7.9% quantum yield. The amylase-Au NCs acted as a fluorescent probe for selective and sensitive detection of deltamethrin and GSH and exhibited good linearity in the range of (0.01-5 mu M) and (0.05-5 mu M), with the detection limit 6 and 10 nM, respectively. The real sample applications of the probe were successfully established by analyzing deltamethrin and GSH in water, food and biological samples. Additionally, amylase-Au NCs were also used as a bio-imaging probe for Exophiala sp. cells.