A Nanoprobe Based on Gated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for The Selective and Sensitive Detection of Benzene Metabolite t,t‐Muconic Acid in Urine

Abstract

Benzene is ah ighly toxic aromatic hydrocarbon. Inhalingb enzene can cause dizziness,v ertigo, headaches, aplasia,m utations and, in the moste xtreme cases, cancer. Trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA) is one of the metabolization products of benzene. Although different analytical methods have been reported for the determination of t,t-MA, these are often expensive, requiret rainedp ersonnel, are not suitable foro n-site measurements, and use hazardous organics olvents. For theser easons, the development of reliable, selective and sensitivem ethodsf or rapid and in situ detection of t,t-MA are of importance. Addressing this challenge, an anodevice for the selectivea nd sensitive quantification of t,t-MA in urine is reported. The nanodevice used is achieved using mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with ad ye reporter and capped with ad icopper(II) azacryptand. Pore openinga nd payload release is induced rapidly (10min) and selectively with t,t-MA in urine, using as imple fluorimeter without sample pretreatment.

Recent applications of organic cages in sensing and separation processes in solution

“…A good correlation was found between the recorded R-index and the concentration of urinary t , t -MA at the occupational level. In collaboration with Martínez-Màñez, 58 a nanoprobe based on gated mesoporous silica was also developed. In particular, silica nanoparticles were loaded with the sulforhodamine B dye (SRh B) and capped with the inclusion complex formed by [Cu 2 ( 4 )] 4+ and a terephthalic acid derivative, grafted onto the external surface of nanoparticles.…”

Mesoporous silicas in materials engineering: Nanodevices for bionanotechnologies

“…The potential applications of engineered mesoporous silica in bionanotechnologies today, and in perspective, define a very broad field that also includes bacterial properties or hormones delivery for plant growth and, more generally, an approach to nanostructured sensors not limited to mesoporous silica as starting architecture [ [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] ].…”

A Supramolecular Approach to Antimicrobial Surfaces

“…Other advantages of this approach are the cost-effectiveness and the absence of any safety issue related to nano-dimensioned materials. Following this approach, in the recent past, we described the grafting on surfaces of copper (II) complexes of a tetraazamacrocycle [ 9 ], 2,2′-bipyridine [ 10 ], PEI (polyethyleneimine) [ 11 ] and bistren ligands [ 12 , 13 ], the diamino–diamido ligand dioxo-232 [ 14 ], and of a silver-sulfadiazine complex [ 15 ], demonstrating the efficiency of the union of “classic” coordination chemistry to surface chemistry when pursuing the goal of preparing efficient antibacterial surfaces. On the basis of what was presented in the previous lines of research, in this work we report on the preliminary investigation of a completely novel approach to antimicrobial surfaces, which is based on supramolecular chemistry and metal–ligand interactions.…”

“…We decided to bind the [Cu 2 (BPXD)] 4+ complex reversibly to surfaces properly functionalized with a layer of imidazole functions, brought on the surface by exploiting a properly chosen trialcoxysilane with an imidazole fragment appended, exploiting simple alcoxysilane chemistry [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], as depicted in Scheme 1 .…”