pH and H2O2 dual-responsive carbon dots for biocatalytic transformation monitoring

Development of sensitive biosensors for biocatalytic transformations monitoring is in high demand but remains a great challenge. It is ascribed to the current strategies that focused on the single metabolite detection, which may bring about the relatively low sensitivity and false diagnosis result. Herein, we report the design and fabrication of novel carbon dots(CDs) with strong orange light emission, pH and H2O2 dual-responsive characteristics. The fluorescence quenching of CDs by H+and H2O2 enables the highly sensitive detection of H+/H2O2-generating biocatalytic transformations. This is exemplified by the glucose oxidase-mediated catalytic oxidation reaction on glucose, in which H+and H2O2 would be formed. As compared to the case in which glucose is present, significant fluorescence reduction is detected, and the fluorescence intensity is negatively proportional to glucose concentration. Thus, highly sensitive detection of glucose was readily achieved with a detection limit down to 10.18 nmol/L. The prepared CDs not only realize the highly sensitive detection of glucose, but also allows the probing other substances by changing the enzymes, thus providing a versatile platform, and demonstrating good potential to be used for biocatalytic transformations effective monitoring.

Synthesis of difluoromethylated benzylborons via rhodium(Ⅰ)-catalyzed fluorine-retainable hydroboration of gem-difluoroalkenes

The synthesis of bo rylated orga nofluorines is of great interest due to their potential values as synthons in modular construction of fluorine-containing molecules.Reported herein is a rhodium-catalyzed hydrobo ration of arylgem-difluoroalkenes leading to a series of α-difluoromethylated benzylborons.The use of cationic rhodium catalyst and a biphosphine ligand with large bite angle was crucial for reactivity by offering good regioselectivity and diminishing the undesired β-F elimination.Preliminary derivatizations of the products were conducted to showcase the utility of this protocol.

Simultaneous photoelectrochemical detection of dual microRNAs by capturing CdS quantum dots and methylene blue based on target-initiated strand displaced amplification

Herein,we propose a novel photoelectrochemical(PEC) biosensor for dual microRNAs(miRNAs) highly sensitive and simultaneous biosensing based on strand displaced amplification(SDA) reaction.The recognition of HmiR-21 and Hlet-7 a by microRNA-21 and let-7 a leads to their change in hairpin structures,subsequently initiating the immobilization of abundant CdS quantum dots(CdS QD s) and methylene blue(MB) based on SDA reaction.The immobilized CdS QDs and MB produce both high PEC currents under430 nm light and 627 nm light illumination,respectively,and the generated PEC currents are closely relied on target miRNAs amounts.Thus,highly sensitive and simultaneous detection of microRNA-21 and let-7 a was readily achieved with detection limit at 6.6 fmol/L and 15.4 fmol/L based on 3σ,respectively.Further,this PEC biosensor was applied in simultaneous analysis of miRNA-21 and let-7 a in breast cancer patient’s serum with acceptable results.We expect this biosensor will find more useful application in diagnosis of miRNA-related diseases.