Exploring and exploiting the synergy of non-covalent interactions on the surface of gold nanoparticles for fluorescent turn-on sensing of bacterial lipopolysaccharide

The sensing of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) relies on the synergy of multiple electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between LPS and the sensor. However, how non-covalent interactions are coordinated to impel the recognition process still remains elusive, and the exploration of which would promote the development of LPS sensors with higher specificity and sensitivity. In this work, we hypothesize that Au NPs would provide a straightforward and flexible platform for studying the synergy of non-covalent interactions. The detailed mechanism of interactions between the designed fluorescent probes and Au NPs with two distinct surface properties was systematically explored. We demonstrated that only when the electrostatic attraction and hydrophobic stacking are both present, the binding of fluorescent probes onto Au NPs can be not only highly efficient, but also positively cooperative. After that, hybrid systems that consist of Au NPs and surface-assembled fluorescent probes were exploited for fluorescent turn-on sensing of LPS. The results show that the sensitivity and selectivity to LPS relies strongly on the binding affinity between fluorescent probes and Au NPs. Fluorescent probes assembled Au NPs thus provide an attractive platform for further optimization of the sensitivity/selectivity of LPS sensing.