On-site monitoring of thiram via aggregation-induced emission enhancement of gold nanoclusters based on electronic-eye platform

The rapid and on-site monitoring of thiram is of great significance because the residue of thiram in agriculture has caused great contamination in environment and food, as well as threaten to the human health. Herein, we constructed a fluorometric strategy for on-site monitoring thiram via the aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) effect of glutathione-capped gold nanoclusters (GSH-AuNCs). The dissociated Ag+ ions can effectively enhance the fluorescent emission intensity of GSH-AuNCs at 570 nm owing to the AIEE phenomenon. Upon the addition of thiram, the fluorescence enhancement effect was weakened due to the strong coordinative interaction between Ag+ and thiram. By monitoring the signal change, the thiram residues were quantitatively analyzed with the detection limit of 0.05 mu g mL(-1). Notably, a home-made electronic-eye (E-eye) system, containing of a test-strip and a smartphone, was constructed as a portable platform to recognize and quantitatively analyze thiram in 10 min on the basis of captured fluorescence signals from a test strip with immobilized probe by direct photographing, which provides a direct quantitative tool to identify pesticide. Taking advantage of user-friendliness, portability and simplicity, the E-eye system are expected to fulfill the demand for quantitative on-site testing of pesticide especially in resource-limited areas.