A novel nanoprobe for multimodal instantaneous detection of tiopronin and tetracycline hydrochloride.

Tiopronin (TP) is a common reagent used in clinical therapy and can cause problems such as myasthenia gravis and gastrointestinal disturbance if not used in the correct dose. Tetracycline (TC) is a class of antibiotic drugs whose long-term accumulation in the body poses a serious threat. Currently, these two substances are mostly detected in a single mode, susceptible to environmental and operational factors. In addition, no probes have been found that can detect the two substances at the same time. Therefore, a novel probe for the multi-modal instantaneous detection of TP and TC was developed based on the LRH@MnO2 nanomaterial. The TP molecule has a reactive hydrophobic group that specifically reacts with MnO2 to degrade MnO2, resulting in the recovery of the fluorescence of 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (HPTS) intercalated layered europium hydroxide (LEuH). The β-diketone structure in the TC molecule sensitizes the red fluorescence of Eu3+. The sensor has a high limit of detection (LOD) for TP and TC (the LOD was 8.0 μM for TP in fluorescence mode, and 4.4 nM in UV mode; 0.12 μM for TC in fluorescence mode) and a wide detection range. In addition, a smartphone-assisted colorimetric detection has been established, the LOD for TP was 146 μM in the LAB mode and 1.3 μM in the RGB mode. In addition, the application in information security has been developed to enrich the optical applications. In the synthesized HPTS-LEuH@MnO2 material, HPTS-LEuH provides the fluorescence emitting group, and MnO2 provides the unique oxidase-like activity as well as more detection sites. The novel probe can detect TP and TC instantaneously in multiple modes and is characterized by easy operation, accurate results, and strong anti-interference. In addition, the application in encryption and decryption of information has been explored, which provides a new idea for the fabrication of multifunctional materials.