Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheets-Based Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for Highly Sensitive Detection of H2O2 and Glucose

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) nanosheets, an emerging graphene-like carbon-based nanomaterial with high fluorescence and large specific surface areas, hold great potential for biosensor applications. Current g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets based fluorescent biosensors majorly rely on single fluorescent intensity reading through fluorescence quenching interactions between the nanosheets and metal ions. Here we report for the first time the development of a novel g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets-based ratiometric fluorescence sensing strategy for highly sensitive detection of H 2 O 2 and glucose. With o -phenylenediamine (OPD) oxidized by H 2 O 2 in the presence of horseradish peroxidase (HRP), the oxidization product can assemble on the g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets through hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking, which effectively quenches the fluorescence of g-C 3 N 4 while delivering a new emission peak. The ratiometric signal variations enable robust and sensitive detection of H 2 O 2 . On the basis of the glucose converting into H 2 O 2 through the catalysis of glucose oxidase, the g-C 3 N 4 -based ratiometric fluorescence sensing platform is also exploited for glucose assay. The developed strategy is demonstrated to give a detection limit of 50 nM for H 2 O 2 and 0.4 μM for glucose, at the same time, it has been successfully used for glucose levels detection in human serum. This strategy may provide a cost-efficient, robust, and high-throughput platform for detecting various species involving H 2 O 2 -generation reactions for biomedical applications.