Sustainable analytical approach for selective fluorescence sensing of sulfosulfuron using copper nanoclusters from Tinospora cordifolia leaves extract

Abstract

In recent times, there has been a growing trend in utilizing medicinal plant extracts for the fabrication of fluorescent nanomaterials. In this work, Tinospora cordifolia-copper nanoclusters (T. cordifolia-CuNCs) were produced by employing Tinospora cordifolia (common name is “giloy”), a medicinal plant. A green chemistry approach was employed to generate blue fluorescent T. cordifolia-CuNCs, displaying λ_Em at 430 nm when λ_Ex at 330 nm, which shows a good quantum yield (QY) of 26.67 %. Sulfosulfuron pesticide was able to quench the fluorescence intensity of T. cordifolia-CuNCs via a “turn-off” mechanism. It was noticed that T. cordifolia-CuNCs could be used for the detection of sulfosulfuron pesticide in the range of 0.025–90 µM with a detection limit of 6.52 nM. Furthermore, a cellulose-based paper strip sensor was created for the visual detection of sulfosulfuron pesticide. Moreover, T. cordifolia-CuNCs-based fluorescence method was applied to quantify sulfosulfuron pesticide in apple, tomato, and rice samples, showing good recoveries, which demonstrates that this probe offers great potentiality for sensing of sulfosulfuron pesticide in food and environmental samples.