Fluorescence enhancement of fungicide thiabendazole by van der Waals interaction with transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheets for highly specific sensors.

Many molecules quench their fluorescence upon adsorption on surfaces. Herein we show that the interaction of thiabendazole, a widespread used fungicide of the benzimidazole family, with nanosheets of transition metal dichalcogenides, particularly of WS2, leads to a significant increase, more than a factor of 5, of the fluorescence yield. This surprising effect is rationalized by DFT calculations and found to be related to the inhibition of the intramolecular rotation between the benzimidazole and thiazole groups due to a bonding rigidization upon interaction with the MoS2 surface.

Synergistic effect of MoS and diamond nanoparticles in electrochemical sensors: determination of the anticonvulsant drug valproic acid.

The authors describe an electrochemical sensor based on the use of diamond nanoparticles (DNPs) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS) platelets. The sensor was applied to the voltammetric determination of the anticonvulsant valproic acid which was previously derivatized with ferrocene. The MoS platelets were obtained by an exfoliation method, and the DNPs were directly dispersed in water and subsequently deposited on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE).

Electrocatalytic processes promoted by diamond nanoparticles in enzymatic biosensing devices.

We have developed a biosensing platform for lactate determination based on gold electrodes modified with diamond nanoparticles of 4nm of nominal diameter, employing the enzyme lactate oxidase and (hydroxymethyl)ferrocene (HMF) as redox mediator in solution. This system displays a response towards lactate that is completely different to those typically observed for lactate biosensors based on other nanomaterials, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles or even diamond nanoparticles of greater size. We have observed by cyclic voltammetry that, under certain experimental conditions, an irreversible wave (E(0)=+0.

Diamond nanoparticles based biosensors for efficient glucose and lactate determination.

In this work, we report the modification of a gold electrode with undoped diamond nanoparticles (DNPs) and its applicability to the fabrication of electrochemical biosensing platforms. DNPs were immobilized onto a gold electrode by direct adsorption and the electrochemical behavior of the resulting DNPs/Au platform was studied. Four well-defined peaks were observed corresponding to the DNPs oxidation/reduction at the underlying gold electrode, which demonstrate that, although undoped DNPs have an insulating character, they show electrochemical activity as a consequence of the presence of different functionalities with unsaturated bonding on their surface.

Laccase biosensors based on different enzyme immobilization strategies for phenolic compounds determination.

Different enzyme immobilization approaches of Trametes versicolor laccase (TvL) onto gold surfaces and their influence on the performance of the final bioanalytical platforms are described. The laccase immobilization methods include: (i) direct adsorption onto gold electrodes (TvL/Au), (ii) covalent attachment to a gold surface modified with a bifunctional reagent, 3,3'-Dithiodipropionic acid di (N-succinimidyl ester) (DTSP), and (iii) integration of the enzyme into a sol-gel 3D polymeric network derived from (3-mercaptopropyl)-trimethoxysilane (MPTS) previously formed onto a gold surface (TvL/MPTS/Au). The characterization and applicability of these biosensors are described.