Glutathione-templated blue emitting copper nanoclusters as selective fluorescent probe for quantification of nitrofurazone

In this work, copper nanoclusters (Cu NCs) were successfully synthesized through one-pot strategy by protecting of glutathione (GSH) and reducing of ascorbic acid (AA). The probe displayed excellent comprehensive stability and realized the detection of nitrofurazone. Fluorescence of GSH-Cu NCs was quenched by nitrofurazone with good linear relationship of nitrofurazone concentration from 0.5 to 100 μM. Significantly, GSH-Cu NCs showed superior selectivity of nitrofurazone on account of static quenching and inner filter effect (IFE) mechanism. More importantly, recovery experiments of nitrofurazone detection obtained satisfactory results in bovine serum. The sensor provided better detection platform of nitrofurazone with superior fluorescence properties.