A Gold Nanoparticles-Based “Off–On” Sensor for Nicotine Determination in Tobacco Products
摘要
The current work presented the application of gold nanoparticles in a fluorescent system to determine nicotine in tobacco products. In this system, the fluorescence emission of fluorescein was reduced due to energy transfer to the gold nanoparticles. The nicotine adding caused the aggregation of gold nanoparticles, thereby decreasing the quenching effect of nanoparticles on fluorescein fluorescence, which led to a recovery in fluorescence intensity proportional to the nicotine concentration. Main experimental parameters including pH, concentration of Au NPs and fluorescein, and incubation time were optimized using a one-variable-at-a-time approach, and the method was partially validated by established guidelines. The validated method demonstrated strong analytical performance for detecting nicotine within the range of 0.01 to 0.8 μg.mL−1, with a detection limit of 0.002 μg.mL−1 and a quantification limit of 0.01 µg.mL−1. The intra-day and inter-day RSDs % were reported to be 2.8% and 6.1%, respectively. Finally, the validated sensor was used to measure the nicotine levels in various tobacco products. The standard addition method was employed for this analysis and the results showed a concentrations range of 0.83 to 1.21 µg.mL−1 for nicotine in real samples.