Chloramphenicol (CAP) is a veterinary antibiotic that has been banned due to its severe side effects in humans. Through the application of manure, veterinary antibiotics can enter the soil, where they can be taken up by crops and vegetables and pose a potential health hazard to humans. Thus, it is highly desirable to develop a rapid and sensitive tool for on-site detection of CAP to ensure food safety and to control the abuse of antibiotics. To this end, nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) were successfully prepared via microwave-assisted synthesis using citric acid and urea as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. Analytical results suggested that the interaction between N-GQDs and CAP could occurs via π-π stacking, which quenched N-GQD fluorescence. CAP spiked into chicken feed could be rapidly extracted with ethanol and quantified based on N-GQD fluorescence quenching without further separation. This method showed good recovery (97-102.6%), a low detection limit (1.8 ppm), and was not affected by interference from florfenicol, and thiamphenicol, legal substitute antibiotics. This method has excellent potential for determination of CAP in livestock feed and soil. K E Y W O R D Schloramphenicol, fluorescence quenching, graphene quantum dots, nitrogen doping

Strong coupling between light and matter is the foundation of promising quantum photonic devices such as deterministic single photon sources, single atom lasers and photonic quantum gates, which consist of an atom and a photonic cavity. Unlike atom-based systems, a strong coupling unit based on an emitter-plasmonic nanocavity system has the potential to bring these devices to the microchip scale at ambient conditions. However, efficiently and precisely positioning a single or a few emitters into a plasmonic nanocavity is challenging. In addition, placing a strong coupling unit on a designated substrate location is a demanding task. Here, fluorophore-modified DNA strands are utilized to drive the formation of particle-onfilm plasmonic nanocavities and simultaneously integrate the fluorophores into the high field region of the nanocavities. High cavity yield and fluorophore coupling yield are demonstrated. This method is then combined with e-beam lithography to position the strong coupling units on designated locations of a substrate. Furthermore, the high correlation between electronic transition of the fluorophore and the cavity resonance is observed, implying more vibrational modes may be involved. Our system makes strong coupling units more practical on the microchip scale and at ambient conditions and provides a stable platform for investigating fluorophore-plasmonic nanocavity interaction.

No abstract