Dramatic Fluorescence Enhancement of Pcn-224 and its Application in “Turn Off” Immunoassay for Sensitive Detection of E. Coli O157:H7 in Milk

Abstract

In this study, we discovered a type of luminescent porous coordination network-224 (PCN-224) in alkaline conditions with the dramatic fluorescence enhancement by 20.4 times, which was explained by the fact that the decrease of Zr4+ content in alkaline conditions resulted in the partial recovery of the electron cloud density of 4,4',4′′,4′′′-(Porphine-5,10,15,20-tetrayl) tetrakis(benzoic acid) (TCPP). Given the large overlap between the excitation spectrum of PCN-224 and the absorption band of Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs), the coating of the Ag layer on PCN-224 triggered the fluorescence quenching effect, which was applied to “turn off” fluorescence immunoassay for sensitive detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7) in milk. The proposed immunoassay reached a low limitation of detection (LOD) of 3.3 × 102 CFU mL-1, 29.7 times more sensitive than the conventional ELISA. It will provide a novel alternative strategy for sensitively detecting pathogenic bacteria in the field of food safety.

Keywords: PCN-224, fluorescence enhancement, fluorescence quenching, ELISA, E. coli O157:H7