Invertase-nanogold clusters decorated plant membranes for fluorescence-based sucrose sensor

In the present study, invertase-mediated nanogold clusters were synthesized on onion membranes, and their application for sucrose biosensor fabrication was investigated. Transmission electron microscopy revealed free nanoparticles of various sizes (diameter ~5 to 50 nm) along with clusters of nanogold (~95 to 200 nm) on the surface of inner epidermal membranes of onions (Allium cepa L.). Most of the polydispersed nanoparticles were spherical, although some were square shaped, triangular, hexagonal or rod-shaped. Ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometric observations showed the characteristic peak for nanoparticles decorated invertase-onion membrane at approximately 301 nm. When excited at 320 nm in the presence of sucrose, the membranes exhibited a photoemission peak at 348 nm. The fluorescence lifetime of this nanogold modified onion membrane was 6.20 ns, compared to 2.47 ns for invertase-onion membrane without nanogold. Therefore, a sucrose detection scheme comprised of an invertase/nanogold decorated onion membrane was successfully developed. This fluorescent nanogold-embedded onion membrane drop-test sensor exhibited wide acidic to neutral working pH range (4.0-7.0) with a response time 30 seconds (<1 min). The fabricated quenching-based probe had a low detection limit (2x10(−9) M) with a linear dynamic range of 2.25x10(−9) to 4.25x10(−8) M for sensing sucrose. A microplate designed with an enzyme-nanomaterial-based sensor platform exhibited a high compliance, with acceptable percentage error for the detection of sucrose in green tea samples in comparison to a traditional method. With some further, modifications, this fabricated enzyme-nanogold onion membrane sensor probe could be used to estimate glucose concentrations for a variety of analytical samples. [Figure: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12951-015-0089-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.