Fluorescent Determination of Dopamine Using Polythymine-Templated Copper Nanoclusters

ABSTRACT

Dopamine has been shown interact strongly with Cu²⁺ to form a stable complex and inhibit the formation of polythymine-templated copper nanoclusters. Based on these findings, a label-free sensing strategy has been designed for the detection of dopamine using polythymine-templated copper nanoclusters as fluorescence probes. The fluorescent method exhibits sensitive and selective detection of dopamine with a linear range from 1 nM to 50 µM and a detection limit of 0.5 nM. In addition, the method was successfully applied for the determination of dopamine in dopamine hydrochloride injection samples. Thus, this approach holds considerable potential for the construction of a simple, rapid, and sensitive fluorescent assay for the determination of dopamine.

KEYWORDS:

• Dopamine
• fluorescence
• inhibition
• polythymine-templated copper nanoclusters

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1704153, 21305119), Plan for Young Excellent Teachers in Universities of Henan Province (No. 2017GGJS100), Plan for Scientific Innovation Talent of Henan Province (No. 2017JR0016), and Nanhu Scholars Program for Young Scholars of XYNU.